
*■■"*•■ -*— L..— v..^- -ija^ 



^'a»l«^»■*!wi^ ^J >g<aw a l»ll , l lH ll ll ll W l ■ l |l I ' l mwuii j m b mi I 




A NEW CHAPTER IN 
AN OLD STORY 





THE FIRST MISSILE 



The Cave Man of Prehistoric Times who Unconsciously 
Invented Arms and Ammunition 



A NEW CHAPTER 
IN AN OLD STORY 

BEING AN INTEP^ESTING ACCOUNT 
OF THE STR.ANGE 5TEPS 

BY W^HICH 

A Crccit 
Modern Business 

HA5 GROWN 
OUT OF ANCIENT COKDITION5 

TOGETHEP^ ^VITH 

A LOOK INTO THE FUTUKE 



PUBLISHED ANNO DOMINI MCMXII BY 

REMINGTON AP^MS-UNION METALLIC CAB^TP^IDGE CO 

299 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 



r.f, Copyright, 1912, by 

THE REMINGTON ARMS- 
UNION METALLIC CARTRIDGE 
COMPANY 

,' Prepared, Pictured and 

fci r Printed 

by 

THE SEARCH-LIGHT LIBRARY 

450 FOURTH AVENUE 

NEW YORK 

StafT Photographer, P. P. PuUis 







"o 



^ 




The Seven Remarkable Full - Page Illustra- 
tions found in this Book — including the Front 
Cover Picture TRIBUTE OF THE AGES — are 
Actual Photographs from Life. 



CCI.A3aO0 7 7 



A NEVV^ CHAPTER IN AN OLD STORY 



FOREWORD 

This book has been written to tell of an important event — 
important to us who write and to you who read. Like most 
important events its preparation commenced years ago. 

Perhaps it would be as well to start at the very beginning, 
for it is an interesting story. 






i 



History — a 

How it Began 

A NAKED savage found 
himself in the great- 
est danger. A wild 
beast, hungry and 
-^ fierce was about to 

attack him. Escape 
was impossible. Re- 
treat was cut off. 
He must fight for his life — but how.^ 
Should he bite, scratch or kick.? 
Should he strike with his fist.'' These 
weic tlie natural defences of his body, 
but u hat were they against the teeth, 
the claws and the tremendous muscles 
of his enemy.? Should he wrench a 
dead branch from a tree and use it for 
a club.? That would bring him within 
striking distance to be torn to pieces 
before he could deal a second blow. 

There was but a moment in which 
to act. Swiftly he seized a jagged 
fragment of rock from the ground and 
hurled it with all his force at the 
blazing eyes before him; then another, 
and another, until the beast, dazed 
and bleeding from the unexpected 
blows, fell back and gave him a chance 



nd Before 



to escape. He knew that he had 
saved his life, but there was some- 
thing else which his dull brain failed 
to realize. 

He had invented arms and ammu- 
nition! 



In other words, he had needed to 
strike a harder blow than the blow of 
his fist, at a greater distance than the 
length of his arm, and his brain 
showed him how to do it. After all, 
what is a modern rifle but a device 
which man has made with his brain 
permitting him to strike an enor- 
mously hard blow at a wonderful 
distance.? Firearms are really but a 
more perfect form of stone-throwing, 
and this early Cave Man took the 
first step that has led down the ages 
to the Remington Arms and U M C 
ammunition. 

This strange story of a development 
that has been taking place slowly 
through thousands and thousands of 
years, so that to-day you are able to 
take a swift shot at distant game in- 
stead of merely throwing stones, — this 



ai^t^ 




Si^!..,:-,^:a%fi.ai 



kN SLINt; MAN 
MAST TOP 




is the story w^hich we shall 

briefly tell. 

The Earliest Hunters 

The Cave Man and his 
descendants learned the 
valuable lesson of stone- 
throwing, and it made 
hunters of them, not big- 
game hunters — that was far too risky; 
but once in a while a lucky throw 
might bring down a bird or a rabbit 
for food. And so it went on for cen- 
turies, perhaps. Early mankind was 
rather slow of thought. 

At last, however there appeared a 
great inventor — the Edison of his day. 

He took the second step. 
A Nameless Edison 

We do not know his name. Pos- 
sibly he did not even have a name, 
but in some way he hit upon a scheme 
for throwing stones farther, harder, and 
straighter than any of his ancestors. 

The men and women in the Cave 
Colony suddenly found that one 
bright-eyed young fellow, with a little 
straighter forehead than the others, 
was beating them all at hunting. 
During weeks he had been going away 
mysteriously, for hours each day. 
Now, whenever he left the camp he 
was sure to bring home game, while 
the other men would straggle back 
for the most part empty-handed. 

Was it witchcraft.? They decided 
to investigate. 
What They Saw 

Accordingly, one morning several of 
them followed at a careful distance as 
he sought the shore of a 
stream where water-fowl 
might be found. Parting the 



leaves, they saw him pick up a 
pebble from the bank and then 
to their surprise, take off his '^ 
girdle of skin and place the ' 
stone in its center, holding 
both ends with his right hand. 

Stranger still, he whirled the 
girdle twice around his head, '*■■■■ 
then released one end so that the 
leather strip flew out and the stone 
shot straight at a bird in the water. 

The mystery was solved. They had 
seen the first slingman in action. 

The Use of Slings 

The new plan worked with great 
success, and a little practice made 
expert marksmen. We know that 
most of the early races used it for 
hunting and in war. We find it 
shown in pictures made many thou- 
sands of years ago in ancient Egypt 
and Assyria. We find it in the Roman 
Army where the slingman was called 
a " funditor." 

We find it in the Bible where it is 
written of the tribe of Benjamin: 
"among all these people there were 
seven hundred chosen men left 
handed; every one could sling a 
stone at an hair breadth and not 
miss. " Surely, too, you remember 
the story of David and Goliath when 
the young shepherd "prevailed over 
the Philistine with a sling and with a 
stone." 

Today shepherds tending their flocks 
upon these same hills of Syria may 
be seen practising with slings like 
those of David. Yes, and slings were 
used in European Armies 
until nearly a hundred years 
after America was discovered. 




EC.YPTIAN 
SLING SOLDIliU 



MAKINC FrRE WITH 
SPINDLE 




Something Better 

Yet they had m\ 
their draw-backs, f 
A stone slung 
might kill a bird or 
even a man, but it 
was not very effective 
against big game. 

What was wanted was 
a missile to pierce a thick hide 




FEATHERING THE 
ARROW 



since now but one 
hand was needed 
to twirl the spin- 
dle, and the other 
could hold it in 
place. This was the 
"bow-drill" which 
also is used to this day. 
A Fortunate Accident 
But bent wood is apt to be 



Alan had begun to make spears springy. Suppose that while one were 
for use in a pinch, but would }ou bearing on pretty hard with a well- 
like to tackle a husky bear or a tightened string, in order to bring fire 
well-horned stag with only a spear for quickly, the point of the spindle 
a weapon.'' should slip from its block. Naturally, 

No more did our undressed ances- it would fly away with some force if 

tors. The invention of the greatly the position were just right, 
desired arm probably came about in This must have happened many 

a most curious way. times, and each time but once, the 

Long ages ago man had learned to lire-maker may have muttered some- 
make fire by patiently rubbing two thing under his breath, gone after his 
sticks together, or by twirling a spindle, and then settled down stu- 
round one between his hands with pidly to his work. He had had a 
its point resting upon a flat piece of golden chance to make a great dis- 
wood. covery, but didn't realize it. 

In this way it could be made to But, so it has been suggested, 

smoke, and finally set fire to a tuft there was one man who stopped 

of dried moss, from which he might short when he lost his spindle, for 

get a flame for cooking. This was a red-hot idea shot suddenly 

such hard work that he bethought through his brain, 
him to twist a string of sinew about He forgot all about his fire- 

the upright spindle and cause it to blocks while he sat stock still 



twirl by pulling alternately at 
the two string ends, as 
some savage races still 
do. From this it was 
a simple step to fas- 
ten the ends of 
the two strings to 
a bent piece of 
wo od, another 
great advantage 




and thought. 

Once or twice he 
chuckled to him- 
self softly. There- 
upon he arose 
and began to 
experiment. 
He chose a 
longer, springier 
pieceof wood, bent 



WINDING THE 
SHAFT 



;*-f^> 






it into a bow, and strung it with 
a longer thong. He placed the end 
of a straight stick against the thong, 
drew it strongly back, and released 
it. 

The shaft whizzed away with 
force enough to delight him, and lo, 
there was the first Bow-and-Arrow! 
What Came of It 

After that it was merely a matter 
of improvement. The arrow-end was 
apt to slip from the string until some 
one thought to notch it. Its head 
struck with such force that the early 
hunter decided to give it a sharp 
point, shaped from a flake of flint, in 
order that it might drive deep into 
the body of a deer or bear. 

But most of all it must fly true and 
straight to its mark. Who of all 
these simple people first learned to 
feather its shaft.'' Was it some one 
who had watched the swift, sure- 
footed spring of a bushy-tailed 
squirrelfrombranch to branch? 
Possibly, for the principle is 
thesame. Atallevents 
with its feathers and 
its piercing 
point the 
arrow became the 
most deadly of all mis- 
siles, and continued 
to be until long after 
the invention of fire- 
arms. 
Ruler of the Earth 

Armed with his 
bow-and-arrow, man 
now was lord of cre- 
ation. No longer was 
it necessary for him 




to huddle with his fellows in some 
cave to avoid being eaten by prowl- 
ing beasts. Instead he went where 
he would and boldly hunted the 
fiercest of them. In other words, his 
brain was beginning to tell, for 
though his body was still no match 
for the lion and the bear, he had 
thought out a way to conquer them. 

Also he was better fed with a 
greater variety of game. And 
now, free to come and go wher- 
ever he might find it, he was 
able to spread into various 
lands and so to organize the 
tribes and nations which at last 
gave us civilization and history. 

Unfortunately his weap^ons were 
not always used for hunting. Wars 
came, and arrows were seen to be as 
deadly against mankind as against 
the animals. 

Thus, from the earliest days down 
through the IXliddle Ages and into 
modern times, we find archers in 
practically every army. 
A Great Variety 

It is interesting to 
see how many differ- 
ent forms of bow 
were used. The Eng- 
lish had a six-foot 
"long bow" made of 
yew or ash, in a sin- 
gle straight piece, 
that shot arrows the 
length of a man's 
arm. The Indians 
had bows only forty 
inches on the aver- 
age, since a short boAV 
was easier to handle 



m 

M 
I 



in thick forests. They used various 
kinds of wood, horn, or even bone, such 
as the ribs of large animals. These 
they generally backed with sinew. 
Sometimes they cut spiral strips 
from the curving horns of a moun- 
tain - sheep, and steamed them 
straight. Then they glued 
these strips together into a 
wonderfully tough and springy 
bow. Once in a while they even 
took the whole horns of some 
young sheep, that had not curved 
too much, and used the pair just as 
they grew. In this case each horn 
made one-half of the bow, and the 
piece of skull between was shaped 
down into a handle. This gave the 
shape of a "Cupid's Bow," but it 
could shoot to kill. 
Other Types 

Many of the ancient pictures that 
have come down to us from Egypt 
id Assyria are filled with archers 
ids of feats 
igular bows. 
The Greeks 
ised curved 
: n d s and a 
traight cen- 
tal handle. 
)Ut perhaps 
le most sci- 
itiiicallycon- 
Lructed, were 
le built-up 
:)Ows of the 
Japanese. 

These 
clever lit- 
tle fellows 




chose well-seasoned mulberry, and 
encased each piece with two fire- 
toughened strips of bamboo. These 
they wound tightly together with 
rattan fiber. Where the strings were 
attached at the ends was placed a 
cover of sharkskin, and the whole 
was then given coat after coat of 
their famous lacquer, a varnish which 
never cracked, wore like iron, and 
resisted all kinds of weather. The 
result was a bow of the most wonder- 
ful lightness, strength, spring, and 
durability. 
An Unusual Shape 

Its shape was quite as scientific. 
The bigger the bow, the stronger the 
shot, and of course they wished for 
large bows. The Japanese archers 
were much too short to handle large 
bows of ordinary shape, but this is 
where brains told again, and every 
one knows that the little brown men 
have brains. 

So they shaped their bows, seven 
feet high in some cases, with the cen- 
tral part straight, the top curve long, 
and the bottom curve short. This 
gave a powerful drive from the lower 
part of the string, and made it possible 
to fit the arrow a foot below the 
center. The result was archery like 
that of the English long bow. 
As to Arrows 

The arrows were quite as important, 
and their making became a great in- 
dustry with every race. This 
was because so many must be 
carried for each hunt or battle. 

Who is not familiar with 
the chipped flint arrow- 
heads that the farmer 
so often turns up with 



STRANGE TYPE OF BOW AND Al<k(_i\V 
NEW CAUEDONiA 



are also 



his plow as a rel- 
ic of the period 
when Americans 
were red-skinned 
instead of white? 
These arrow- 
heads have gen- 
erally a shoulder 
where the arrow 
was set into the 
shaft, there to be 
bound t i g h 1 1 \' 
with sinew or 
fiber. Many of them 
barbed to hold the flesh. 
A Workshop Near the Capitol 

Strangely enough, one of the 
largest workshops ever found was 
in the District of Columbia within 
sight of our Capitol building. 
In some parts of the country 
may be found obsidian, or vol- 
canic glass, and keen - edged 
splinters of this were even better 
than flint. 

Later when the Indians had 
learned from the White Man the 
use of iron, they began to send 
iron-headed arrows between his 
ribs in return for the loss of their 
country. 

Can you see the Indian arrow- 
maker at his task in the 
days w hen t h 
"cost of living 
problem" 
consisted 
m e r e - 
ly ii 
the 




chance of losing an 
occasional arrow.'' 
He did not need 
to invest many 
millions in an 
ammunition fac- 
tory like the vast 
Union Aletallic 
Cartridge plant 
at Bridgeport. 
Instead he, him- 
self, was both 
plant and work- 
ing force, as he squatted under a for- 
est tree and skilfully chipped a pile of 
flint-flakes into proper shape. 

Or perhaps he would be working 
on shafts. In this case he would take 
a stick from a bundle of service-berry 
shoots, or some other chosen wood, 
and patiently straighten it by bend- 
ing it back and forth through a piece 
of pierced horn. Occasionally he 
would squint along its length until 
his practiced eye was satisfied. 

Then he would round it, smooth it, 
and gauge it with other simple tools. 
Every arrow in a quiver must be ex- 
actly alike and as straight as a sun- 
beam. The slightest error would 
spoil the aim of the marksman, and 
this too frequently might be a matter 
of life and death. 
Blood-Getters" 

t the proper 
1, headed, 
t c h e d , 
i a t h - 
ered, 





WITH CROSS-BOWS IN THE FIFTliENrH CENTIRV 
Courtesy of Lon^iiuins Crecii Co. 



perhaps painted as well, the arrow 

was finally complete, and yet not 
before the arrow-maker ofttimes did 
a curious thing. Taking up a blunt 
pointed stone he dug zig-zag grooves 
along its length, as may be seen in 
museums. What was the meaning 
of this? 

Opinions differ. Some believe that 
they were to let air into the wound 
and cause a flow of blood. Hence 
their name "blood-getters." Others 
think they helped the arrow cling 
to the flesh, and still others claim 
they are merely a primitive symbol 
of lightning, because they were sup- 
posed to give extraordinary swift- 
ness and accuracy through a sort 
of magic. 
Deer's Ribs and Man's Ribs 

Even the matter of notching 
was not as simple as it might seem 
to be. Arrows were aimed at the 
heart, but the heart is partly pro- 
tected by ribs which the arrows 
must slip between. In hunting 
four-footed animals like the deer 
and buffalo with up-and-down ribs, 
the arrow must drive forward with 
the head standing nearly upright. 
On the other hand, man's ribs 



run crosswise, and the arrow must 
enter in a flat-headed position. 

Since the notch gives the arrow its 
position in leaving the bow, hunting- 
arrows must therefore be straight- 
notched with reference to the head, 
and the best war-arrows cross-notch- 
ed, — a truly ingenious idea. 
"Frog Crotch" and "Bowel Raker" 

Most nations, of course, had metal 
arrow-heads, and in Japan these 
had strangely named forms for 
special purposes. The "Frog 
Crotch" and "Knife Prong," 
for example, were made to cut the 
helmet strings and armor-lacing 
of the foe. One was called the 
"Armor Piercer," and was pro- 
vided with a hardened steel head 
shaped like a mechanic's center- 
punch. 

The "Bowel Raker" was a mur- 
derous affair which tore the abdomen 
of its victim. Still others were called 
from their shapes "Willow Leaf," 
"Turnip Top," etc. To use arrows 
for special purposes like these indi- 
cates that the Japanese were clever 
archers. We are told that some of 
them could even "sew the wings" of 
a flying bird, that is, drive a single 




SHOOTING WITD BO\R WITH C KOSS-BOWS 



SIXTEENTH-CENTURY 

HUNTING 

CROSS-BOW 



arrow through both wings 
without touching the 
bird's body. 
Barbs and Poisons 

It would take volumes 
to tell the story of archery 
in peace and war through 
all its thousands of years. 
We must hasten, and can 
not examine the barbed 
arrows of some races that 
were made to pull loose 
from their shafts and re- 
main in the wound, or the 
cruel, poisoned points of 
others. We can not stop 
to consider the wonderful 
ma rksmanshipnvhich could 
split a slender hazel rod at 
400 yards, nearly a quarter 
of a mile, or the power 
which could pierce a stout 
oak plank or drive an 
arrow completely through 
the body of a buffalo. 
Cases have been known 
where two buffaloes, run- 
ning side by side, have been 
killed with a single arrow. 
All these and many other points 
prove to us that the bow and arrow 
have played a very important part in 
the history of the world. Their use 
was undoubtedly one of the principal 
steps in the development of modern 
arms. 
A Shooting Machine 

But the age of machinery was com- 
ing on. Once in a while there were 
glimpses of more powerful and com- 
plicated devices to be seen among 
these simple arms. 

A new weapon now came about 



through warfare. Man has been a 
savage fighting animal through pretty 
much all his history, but while he 
tried to kill the other fellow, he 
objected to being killed himself. 

Therefore he took to wearing ar- 
mor. During the Middle Ages he 
piled on more and more, until at last 
one of the knights could hardly 
walk, and it took a strong horse to 
carry him. When such a one fell, he 
went over with a crash like a tin- 
peddler's wagon, and had to be 
picked up again by some of his men. 
Such armor would turn most of the 
arrows. Hence invention got at 
work again and produced the Cross- 
bow and its bolt. We have alread}' 
learned how the tough skin of ani- 
mals brought about the bow; now we 
see that man's artificial iron skin 
caused the invention of the cross- 
bow. 
What It Was 

What was the Cross-bow.? It was 
the first real hand-shooting machine. 
It was another big step toward the 
day of the rifle. The idea was simple 
enough. Wooden bows had already 
been made as strong as the strongest 
man could pull, and they wished for 
still stronger ones — steel ones. How 
could they pull them.? At first they 
mounted them upon a wooden frame 
and rested one end on the shoulder 
for a brace. Then they took to 
pressing the other end against the 
ground, and using both hands. Next, 
it was a bright idea to put a stirrup 
on this end, in order to hold it with 
the foot. 

Still they were not satisfied. 
"Stronger, stronger!" they clamored; 



"give us bows which will kill the 
enemy farther away than he can shoot 
at us! If we cannot set such bows 
with both arms let us try our backs!" 
So they fastened "belt-claws" to their 
stout girdles and tugged the bow 
strings into place with their back 
and leg muscles. 

"Stronger, stronger again, for now 
the enemy has learned to use belt- 
claws and he can shoot as far as we. 
Let us try mechanics!" 
, , So they attached levers, pulleys, 

ry ratchets, and windlasses, until at last 

""-■ ''''• ' they reached the size of the great 
siege cross-bows, weighing eighteen 
pounds. These sometimes needed a 
force of twelve hundred pounds to 
draw back the string to its catch, 
but how they could shoot! Notice 
the pictures of the cross-bows and 
you will see that now the weapons 
began to look a little like guns as 
we know them. They had shoulder 
pieces. 
In the Chino- Japanese War 

Everything is good until something 
better comes. Cross-bows were very 
good indeed In their day, and the 
smaller sizes became popular for 
hunting in many countries. Some 
forms also were made to throw 
stones and bullets instead of arrows. 
It will surprise most people to learn 
that cross-bows are still carried by 
Chinese soldiers in some of the in- 
terior provinces. 

Don't smile, the Chinese repeating 
cross-bow is really a very clever arm, 
and none of us would like to get in 
its way. It has a box above the frame, 
and in this box are ten arrows. As 
fast as one is fired another drops 



into place, and the whole ten can be 
sent at their mark in fifteen seconds. 
Would you like to charge that kind 
of a proposition t Some of them were 
used in the war between China and 
Japan, and it appeared that a man 
killed with a cross-bow bolt was 
about as dead as one shot with the 
latest thing in modern ammunition. 
And Now for Chemistry 

Human muscle seemed to have 
reached its limit, mechanics seemed 
to have reached its limit, but still the 
world clamored, "Stronger, strong- 
er! How shall we kill our enemy 
farther away than he can kill us.''" 
For answer, man unlocked one 
of the secrets of Nature and 
took out a terrible force. It 
was a force of chemistry. 

\\ ho first discovered 
the power of gunpowder.'' 
Probably the Chinese, 
although all authorities 
do not agree. Strange, is it 
not, that a race still using 
cross-bows in its arm 
should have known of 
explosives long before 
the Christian Era, and per- 
haps as far back as the time 
of Aloses .'' Hereis a passage 
from their ancient Gentoo 
Code of Laws: "The 
magistrate shall not make 
war with any deceitful 
machine, or with poisoned 
weapons, or with cannons 
orguns,or any kind of fire- 
arms." But China might 
as well have been Alars 
before the age of travel. 
Our civilization had 



:/:' 




■^^»t^-^t.. 






M& 






to work 

out the 

^ problem for itself. 

Playing with Fire 

It all began through playing 

with fire. It was desired to throw 

fire on an enemy's buildings, or 

his ships, and so destroy them. 

Burning torches were thrown by 

machines, made of cords and 

springs, over a city wall, and it 

became a great study to find the 

best burning compound with which 

to cover these torches. One was 

needed which would blaze with a 

great flame and was hard to put 

out. 

Hence the early chemists 
made all possible mixtures of pitch, 
resin, naphtha, sulphur, saltpeter, 
etc.; "Greek fire" was one of the 
most famous. 
What Two Monks Discovered 

Many of these were made in 
\ the monasteries. The monks 
were pretty much the only peo- 
ple in those days with time 
for study, and two of these 
shaven - headed scientists now 
had a chance to enter his- 
tory. Roger Bacon was 
the first. One night he 
, \ was working his diabolical 
; \ mixture in the stone-walled 
laboratory, and watched, 
by the flickering lights, 
the progress of a cer- 
tain interesting com- 
bi nation for 



which he had used pure instead of 
impure saltpeter. 

Suddenly there was an explosion, 
shattering the chemical apparatus 
and probably alarming the whole 
building. "Good gracious!" we can 
imagine some of the startled brothers 
saying, "whatever is he up to ngw! 
Does he want to kill us all.^" That 
explosion proved the new combifia- 
tion was not fitted for use as a thrown 
fire; it also showed the existence of 
terrible forces far beyond the power 
of all bow-springs, even those made 
of steel. 

Roger Bacon thus discovered what 
was practically gunpowder, as far 
back as the thirteenth century, and 
left writings in which he recorded 
mixing 1 1. 2 parts of the saltpeter, 
29.4 of charcoal, and 29 of sulphur. 
This was the formula developed as 
the result of his investigations. 

Berthold Schwartz, a monk of 
Freiburg, studied Bacon's works 
and carried on dangerous experi- 
ments of his own, so that he is 
ranked with Bacon for the honor. 
He was also the first one to rouse 
the interest of Europe in the great 
discovery. 

And then began the first crude, 
clumsy efi^orts at gunmaking. 
Firearms were born. 
Shooting Tubes 

Do you realize the priv- 
ilege of living to-day in- 
stead of five hundred 
}'ears ago.^ Suppose 
that you had to lay 
aside your hand- 
some, accurately 
balanced 



4P 




THE SLING MAN IN ACTION 



Practice Developed some Wonderful Marksmen 
Among the Users of this Primitive Weapon 




Remington 
rifle with its de- 
pendable UM C 
ammunition, 
and then to stick 
a lighted match 
into the vent hole 
of a clumsy iron tube 
on a wooden handle. 
Suppose that you could not be sure 
whether the unscientific mixture 
would burst the barrel, fire out the 
projectile, or merely refuse to go ofl. 
Would you be the enthusiastic sports- 
man you are to-day? 

That was what your ancestors 
were "up against," only they prob- 
ably thought the weapon wonderful, 
and felt they were very much up-to- 
date. We will not go into details. 
It took centuries for guns to become 
perfect enough to take the place of 
bows and cross-bows, and we shall 
only glance at a few of the principal 
changes. 

The Coming of the Matchlock 

Hand bombards and culverins were 
among the early types. Some of 
these were so heavy that a forked 
support had to be driven into the 
ground, and two men were needed, 
one to hold and aim, the other to 
prime and fire. How does that strike 
you for a duck-shooting proposition.^ 
Of course such a clumsy arrangement 
could only be used in war. 

Improvements kept coming, how- 
ever. Guns were lightened and bet- 
tered in shape. Somebody thought 
of putting a flash pan for the powder, 
by the side of the touch-hole, and now 
it was decided to fasten the slow- 
match, in a movable cock, upon the 



barrel and ignite it with a 
trigger. These matches were 
fuses of some slow-burning fiber, 
like tow, which would keep a spark 
for a considerable time. Formerly 
they had to be carried separately, 
but the new arrangement was a 
great convenience and made the 
matchlock. The cock, being 
curved like a snake, was called the 
"serpentine." 

Winding Up a Gun 

About the time sportsmen were 
through wondering at the conven- 
ience of the matchlock, they began to 
realize its inconvenience. Thus do 
ideas change; you simply cannot keep 
humanity contented. But then the 
"kicker" is a valuable member of 
society. He brings us progress. The 
"kicker" said that matchlocks burned 
up a great deal of fuse, and were hard 
to keep lighted. Both statements 
were true, so inventors racked their 
brains again for something better. 
They all knew you 
could bring sparks 
with flint and steel, 
and that seemed 
an idea worth 
working on. 
A N u r em- 
berg inven- 
tor, in 1515, 
hit on the 
wheel-lock. 
In this a 
notched 
steel wheel 
was wound 
up with a key 
like a clock. 
Flint 




or pyrite, was held against the jagged 
edge of the wheel by the pressure 
of the serpentine. You pulled the 
trigger, then "whirr," the wheel re- 
volved, a stream of sparks flew off 
into the flash-pan, and the gun was 
discharged. 
The Invention of the Chicken Thieves 

This gun worked beautifully, but 
it was expensive. Wealthy sports- 
men could afford them, and so for the 
first time firearms began to be used 
for hunting. Some of these sixteenth 
and seventeenth century nabobs had 
such guns of beautiful workmanship, 
so wrought and carved and inlaid, 
that thev must have cost a small 
..■■„, ^ for- 

^^^ r*-- .<i^ tune. 

\ o u \\' i 1 1 
find 
them 




in many large museums to this day. 

But now the robbers had their 
turn. There are two stories of the 
invention of the flint-lock. Both 
deal with robbers, both have good 
authority, and both may be true, for 
Inventions sometimes are made inde- 
pendently in different places. 

One story runs that the flint-lock 
which was often styled "Lock a la 
Miquelet," from the Spanish word, 
" Miquelitos " — marauders, — -told its 
origin in its name. The other is, 
that the flint-lock was invented in 
Holland by gangs of thieves, whose 
principal business was to steal poul- 
try. The Dutch expression for chick- 
en thieves is "snaap-hans" — we 
might say "snap hens" — and the 
flint-lock was therefore called 
"snaphance" in Holland. 

In either case the explanation 
is easy. The matchlock showed 
its fire at night and wouldn't do 
for thieves, the wheel-lock was 
too expensive, so again necessity 
became the mother of a far-reach- 
ing invention. 
The Gun of Our Ancestors 

Everybody knows what the 
flint-lock was like. You sim- 
ply fastened a flake of flint 
in the cock and snapped it 
against a steel plate. This 
struck off sparks which fell 
into the flash-pan and fired 
the charge. 

It was so practical that it 
became the form of gun for all uses; 
thus gun-making began to be a big 
industry. Invented early in the seven- 
teenth century, it was used by the 
hunters and soldiers of the next 




EARLY PERSIAN GUN 



two hundred years. Old people re- 
member when flint-locks were plenti- 
ful everywhere. In fact they are 
still being manufactured and are sold 
in some parts of Africa and the Ori- 
ent. One factory in Birmingham, 



That was the combina- 
tion of guns with other 
weapons, and their 
concealment in vari- 
ous peaceful looking 
■■■■'■■■■■■•^ objects. 

Guns were made which were battle 
axes at one end and muzzles at 
the other; muskets were combined 
with pikes. Pistols were made a part 
of daggers and at times the muzzle 
was plugged with a dagger point that 



England, is said to produce about had to be removed for firing. In 
twelve hundred weekly, and Belgium some cases even the frame of a cross- 
shares in their manufacture. Some bow w^as made into a gun-barrel. It 
of the Arabs use them to this day in was also a favorite trick, especially 
the form of strange-looking guns with with robbers, to conceal a pistol in an 
long, slender muzzles and very light, innocent looking whip-stock, or other 



curved stocks. 

Freak Guns 

There were freak Inventors in the 
flint-lock period just as there are 
to-day. Some of them wrestled with 



unlikely place. 

The Scotch Clergymen 

We must not forget that rifling 
was invented about the time that the 
wheel-lock appeared, and had a great 



the problem of repeating guns, and deal to do with the improvement of 



put together a number of barrels, 
even seven in the case of one carbine. 
Others tried revolving chambers, like 
our revolvers, and still others, maga- 
zine stocks. Pistols came into use 



shooting. Austrians claim its inven- 
tion for Caspar Zollner of Vienna who 
cut straight grooves in the barrel's 
bore. His gun is said to have been 
used for the first time in 1498, but 



in many interesting shapes, but these the Italians seem to have still better 

warrant as these significant words 
appear in old Latin Italian, under 
date of July 28th, 1476, in the inven- 
tory of the fortress of Guastalla: 
"Also one iron gun made with a twist 
like a snail shell." The rifling made 



were too practical to be considered 
freaks. 

Pistols, by the way, are named 
from the town of Pistoia, Italy, 
where they are said to have been 
invented and first used. 

However, 
there was one 
odd idea which 
seems to have 
been very popu- 
lar for a time. 




I , 






the bullet spin like a top as it flew 
through the air, thus greatly improv- 
ing its precision. If this were a 
complete history, instead of a brief 
story, we should stop and tell about 
the different kinds of grooving. 

As it is we shall jump over to the 
year 1807, when the Rev. Alexander 
John Forsythe, LL.D.,got his patent 
papers for something far better than 
even the steady old flint. He had 
invented the percussion system. In 
some form this has been used ever 
since. Which is to say 
that when the hammer 
of your gun falls, it 
doesn't explode the 
powder, although it 
seems to. Instead it 
sets off a tiny portion 
of a very sensitive 
chemical compound 
called the "primer," and 
the explosion of this 
" "primer" makes the 
, powder go off. Of 
course the two explo- 
sions come so swiftly 
that your ear hears only 
s a single bang. 
?! Caps and Breech-Loaders 
Primers were tried 
in different forms called 
i "detonators," but the 
I familiar little copper cap 
* was the most popular. 
No need to describe 
.. them. Millions are still 
( made to be used on 
old-fashioned nipple 
guns, even in this day 
of fixed ammunition. 
But now we come to 



another great devel- 
opment, the Breech- 
Loader. 

Perhaps you have 
had to handle an old 
muzzle-loader. It was 
all right so long as 
you knew of nothing 
better, but think of it 
now that you have 
your beautiful Rem- 
ington and yourUMC 
ammunition! Do you 
remember how some- 
times you overloaded, 
and the kick made 
your shoulder lame 
for a week.^ Or how, 
when you were ex- 
cited you shot away 
your ramrod.^ The 
gun fouled too, and 
was hard to clean, the nipples broke 
off, the caps split, and the breeches 
rusted so that you had to take them 
to a gunsmith. Yes, in spite of the 
game it got, it was a lot of trouble, 
now you come to think of it. How 
difi"erent it all is now! 
From Henry VIII to Cartridges 

Breech-loaders were hardly new. 
King Henry VIII of England, he of ' 
the many wives, had a match-lock 
arquebus of this type dated 1537. 
Henry IV of France even invented 
one for his army, and others worked 
a little on the idea from time to time. 
But it wasn't until fixed ammunition 
came into use that the breech-loader 
really came to stay, — and that was 
only the other day. You remember 
that the Civil War began with muzzle- 
loaders and ended with breech-loaders. 




SWISS 
PISTOL OF 
THE EARLY I 

SEVENTEENTH 
CENTURY 




WHEEL-LOCK RIFLE 



Houiller, the French 
gunsmith, hit on the 
great idea of the car- 
tridge. If you were going 
to use powder, ball and 
percussion primer, to get 
your game, why not put 
them all into a neat, 
handy, gas-tight case? 
Simple enough, when 
you come to think of 
it, like most great 
ideas. But it re- 
quired good brain- 
stuff to do that 
thinking. 



These are a few 
reasons why you 
can hunt with such 
convenience. There 
are a thousand 
other things that 
might be spoken of 
had we the space. 
Some will come into 
the other chapters, 
but most of them 
will have to be 
taken for 
granted, unless 
you wish to get 
books and begin 
studying about 




entire 



development of arms 
and ammunition. 
We have not touched 
upon that other great di- 
vision of firearm history 
dealing with ordnance. 
Cannon, too, have passed 
through a succession of 
wonderful changes. 
The clumsy stone- 
throwing guns, used by 
Mohammed II in 1453 
when besieging Con- 
stantinople, have 
been developed into 
tremendous modern 
naval and coast-de- 
fence guns hurling 
armor-piercing pro- 
jectiles many miles. 
While these changes 
have been full of in- 
terest, our brief his- 
tory has kept in mind 
the steps that have led 
to the Twentieth Cen- 
tury Hunting-Arm. 
But one thing, 
you can see that 
many forgot- 
ten men have 
been working 
for your benefit 
throughout thousands of years. 



The Romance of Remington Arms 



li 



A Refusal and What Came of It 

WO men, a smith and 

This son, both named 
EHphalet Reming- 
ton, in 1816, were 
working busily one 
day at their forge 
in beautiful Ilion 
Gorge, when, so 
tradition says, the 
son asked his father 
for money to buy a rifle, and 
met with a refusal. The request 
was natural for the surrounding hills 
were full of game. The father must 
have had his own reasons for refusing, 
but — it made Remington Arms! 

EHphalet Jr. closed his firm jaws 
tightly, and began collecting scrap 
iron on his own account. This 
he welded skilfully into a gun- 
barrel, walked fifteen miles to Utica 
to have it rifled, and finally had a 
weapon of which he 
mightwell be proud. 



In reality, it was such a very 
good gun that soon the neighbors 
ordered others like it, and before 
long the Remington forge found 
itself hard at work to meet the 
increasing demand. Several times 
each week the stalwart young man- 
ufacturer packed a load of gun- 
barrels upon his back, and tramped 
all the way to Utica where a 
gunsmith rifled and finished them. 
At this time there were no real 
gun-factories in America, although 
gunsmiths were located in most of 
the larger towns. All gun-barrels 
were imported from England or 
Europe. 

A Machine to Save His Shoulders 

The broad shoulders of EHphalet 
Jr. must have ached under his load, 
for his busy brain soon devised 
machinery with which he 
could do the 






rifling for himself. Thus the forge 
became a complete gun-factory, re- 
ceiving material as scrap iron, and 
turning out finished rifles. Shotguns 
also were made. Up in the gorge was 
a ledge of red sandstone. This 
furnished the first grind- 
stones which ground ^^y 
down the barrels to ^ 
proper form by power 
from the brook. 
Thus father and 



son worked away 
briskly creating 
a brand-new 
American in- 
dustry. They f, 
put brains as p 
well as metal | 
intotheirguns, [ 
and soon Rem- f 
ingtonArms ' 
began to be \ 
famous in all the > 
surrounding \ 
counties. 
Bursting the Shell 

In 1828, the same 
year that the elder 
Remington met his "■ ^ 
death through accident, 
the business outgrew the 
little shop by the brookside — 
burst its shell like a "seventeen-year 
locust" — and bought a large farm 
near the Erie canal. There to-day 
the great plant stands. 

No town was there at that time, 
merely a country "corners," and Mr. 
Remington, after his father's death, 
built a house to live in, and put up a 
wooden shop for his machiner\-. 
Here he brought water for several 




ELIPHALET REMINGTON 

WHO MADE THE 

FIRST GUN 



wheels from Steele's Creek, and set up 
his big tilt-hammer, trip-hammers, 
bellows, grind-stones, and boring- and 
rifling-machines ; the racket they made 
was music to his ears, for the busy little 
plant was the child of his brain 
'""' ''^j^ and hands. The business 
\\ grew with a jump ; within 
u one year demand ran 
""X ahead of supply. 
^x The "Stone Forge" 
\ So Remington 
put up an addi- 
tional building, 
since known as 
, the "Stone 
Forge." Into 
this he put 
more trip- 
hammers spe- 
c i a 1 1 y for 
welding and 
forgingbarrels. 
By this time 
the demand was 
so great that he 
organized a ship- 
ping department 
and carried a stock 
of all parts needed by 
a gunsmith. 
Affairs ran along with con- 
stant improvements for a de- 
cade, and the energetic young smith 
developed into a famous and pros- 
perous manufacturer. Finally, in 1839, 
he founded a partnership with Ben- 
jamin Harrington for the purpose of 
making, as a separate industry, farm 
utensils and other iron articles, al- 
though this is not a part of our story. 
Gathering Scrap 

You can't make iron goods without 





iron, and supply was not well organ- 
ized then. So you must imagine Mr. 
Remington sending men with teams 
throughout the surrounding country 
to stop at all farmhouses, bargain for 
broken plows, hatchets, kettles, odds 




THE OLD FORGE 



and ends of all kinds, to feed the busy 
forges. Thus the country was drained 
of its scrap iron, fresh metal was 
drawn from the Clinton ore beds of 
Oneida County, while timber, cut 
from the surrounding hills, was 
burned into charcoal for fuel. 

In the meantime Mr. Remington 
had sons of his own growing into 
maturity, and Philo his eldest, pre- 
pared to enter the industry. 

The Mexican War 

In 1845 a war-cloud grew suddenly 
out of the southwest. At the distant 
mutterings of the coming conflict 
with Mexico, the Government looked 
about hastily for firearms. 

William Jencks, having invented a 
carbine, the War Department gave 
Ames & Co. of Springfield, Mass., a 
contract to manufacture several thou- 
sand under the Jencks patent. For 



some reason this firm wished to be 
relieved of this order, and Air. Rem- 
ington perceived that this was the 
great chance for which he had 
been waiting. He purchased the 
contract and their special machinery, 
and became a Government con- 
tractor. 

Of course the carbines were well 
made. Carried by the American 
forces, they helped to win the Mexi- 
can War. Eliphalet Remington was 
therefore not without his share in the 
extension of the Union. Another 
building was added, and another 
water-race constructed in order to 
take care of the carbine contract; 
thus the plant grew. This building, 
the "Old Armory," still stands. 




Bigger Contracts 

A few more years passed and far- 
sighted statesmen saw with alarm 
that another and vastly greater war- 
cloud was gathering. Signs increased 
that both North and South were slowly 
moving toward civil war. 

Arms were the all-important thing. 
Mr, Remington, having shown his 
ability in the carbine contract, re- 



-.^^ 




HARPER S FERRY MODEL MUSKET 



ceived an order for five thousand 
rifles of the "Harper's Ferry" 
model; and later additional orders 
for seventy-five hundred. In 1857 
and 1858, the Government called on 
him for five thousand Maynard self- 
priming musket locks. Remington 
revolvers under the Beal patent 
were also made in quantities. 

Aleanwhile, in 1856, the firm of E. 
Remington & Sons was formed with 
the three sons, Philo, Samuel, and 
Eliphalet, as partners of their father, 
and a thriving village took the place 
of the country "corners." 
The Storm 

1861 came, the storm-cloud burst 
in all its fury, and Government 
orders began to pile in upon the 
factory. Five thousand "Harper's 
Ferry" muskets came in to be 
changed so that either sabers or 
bayonets could be attached. The 
work had to be completed within 
two weeks, for the emergency was 
tremendous. Every man and boy 
in Ilion was engaged and the gigantic 
task finished on time. 

Additional buildings were put up. 



Steam was added to water-power, 
expensive machinery was installed. 
Work, day and night, went on to 
the limit of human endurance. 
Besides the rifles, there were such 
urgent calls for Remington pistols 
that an additional building was 
rented in Utica, the daily output 
being three hundred pistols. 
A Hero's Death 

The terrific strain was more than 
Eliphalet Remington could stand. 
It was a matter of patriotism as 
pure as any that had called others 
to the firing line. Many men could 
handle a musket but he, "The 
Father of American Gun-Making," 
as he has been called, must bring his 
tremendous energy and mechanical 
genius to the task of producing mus- 
kets for the rush of volunteers. At 
no point had he spared himself, and 
when on August 12, 1861, he passed 
away, his great organization was a 
vital link in the chain of national 
defense. He truly gave his life for 
his country. Thus did the youth of 
twenty-three, who forty-five years 
before had forged the first gun-barrel, 




REMINGTON HAMMERLESS SHOTGUN 



-ggy^^gn W 4ll '» MW il MIM ! 




live to see his 
name the great- 
est in the an- 
nals of Ameri- 
can gun-mak- 
ing, his arms 
relied upon in 
the country's 
direst need, and 
thus met his 
death in the ser- 
vice of the Union. 
The Sons 
The three sons 
proved equal to 
the burden 
Philo, the eldest, took 
charge of the manu- 
facturing. Samuel, 
the next in age, be- 
came the general 
agent, negotiating 
contracts and pur- 
chasing machinery 
and materials. Eli- % 
phalet, the youngest was 
a beautiful penman and 
had great command of lan- 
guage. Therefore he took up the cor- 
respondence. This was before the days 
of typewriters — another industry in 
which, by the way, the Remingtons 
were destined to play an important 
part. 

In 1865 the partnership of E. Rem- 
ington and Sons was succeeded by 
a corporation of the same name, 
having a nominal capital of one mil- 
lion dollars, and a plant valued at 
one and one-half million dollars. 
Peace and Disaster 

Meanwhile, in Virginia, Gen. Grant 
steadily, surely drew his lines more 




SAMUEL 
REMINGTON 



tightly about the brave but exhausted 
Southerners. The great Northern 
forces, many of them armed with 
rifles of Remington make, at last 
proved irresistible, and upon the 12th 
day of April, Gen. Lee surrendered. 

Mingled with the great rejoicing, 
there came a touch of severe misfor- 
tune to Ilion, for the Government 
cancelled all unfilled orders, and the 
complicated organization, built up 
with so much trouble and expense, to 
meet the strain of production, stop- 
ped short with a jar. Large indebt- 
edness for machinery, material, 
etc., had been incurred 
upon the Government 
contract. Cutting off 
all resources meant 
disaster, and the local 
3. bank, a large creditor, 
, was forced into fail- 
ure. Later, when 
prosperity returned, 
the Remingtons in 
strictest honor paid in 
full, with interest, all the 
stockholders and creditors 
of the unfortunate bank. 
The Breech-Loader 

This crisis was a kind 
of "acid test." First it 
tested credits. Theirs 
were so high that 
notes were extended 
and new credits 
granted. Next it 
tested character. 
Some one has said 
that when trouble 
comes "weak men 
take to the woods 
but strong men 




ELIPHALET 
REMINGTON, JR. 




take to work." The Remingtons were 
strong men; and they worked. 

The war had shown that the arm of 
the future must be a breech-loader. 
\ ery well, the Remingtons would lead 
the procession, as always before, by 
producing the world's best breech- 
loader. An inventive genius named 
John Rider was engaged to develop 
the new arm, surrounded by the best 
skilled mechanics securable. These 
soon presented the famous system of 
a dropping breech-block backed up by 
the hammer. The world took notice. 
The new plan was so simple, so prac- 
ticable, so serviceable, that Den- 
mark placed an immediate 
order for forty-two thou- 
sand rifles. Prosperity 
returned, and again the 
windows of the big plant 
glowed all night as work 
was pressed upon this con- 
tract. In 1867 the United 
States Navy Department 
adopted the Remington breech- 
loader and ordered twelve thousand. 
During the same year Spain ordered 
eighty -five thousand. Next year 
came a demand for thirty thousand 
for Sweden; Egypt took fifty thou- 
sand; in 1870 France called for the 
extreme capacity of the factory. 
Samuel and Philo 

These orders proved the Remington 
the best rifle in the world. Other 
factories were now making breech- 
loaders, but governments clamored 
for the output of one company. 
Samuel Remington spent his entire 
time abroad, as sales-agent; his 
brother, Philo, was presiding genius 
of the factory at Ilion. 



Large additions were made to every 
department. At ti?h*es 1,850 hands 
were employed, and the plant run for 
twenty-four hours a day, the daily out- 
put reaching a total df thirteen hun- 
dred rifles and two hundred revolvers. 
A Bad Cartridge 

Some interesting incidents occurred 
in connection with these foreign 
contracts. Samuel Remington had 
practically closed with Prussia for 
an order of two hundred thousand 
rifles. The Army Board, after the 
severest tests, was enthusiastic in 
favor of this arm, when the King 
came to the place of demonstration 
and asked to see it. Samuel Rem- 
ington handed him a loaded rifle 
and stood back confidently. 
The monarch raised it to 
his shoulder, sighted 
along the barrel, pulled 
the trigger, and — the 
hammermerely 
snapped! A bad 
cartridge at this of 
all moments! Im- 
patiently Wilhelm 
threw down the rifle 
and strode away. The deal was 
off, a matter of several million 
dollars. 

Once an order was pending 
for equipping the whole Turk- 
ish Army with four hundred 
thousand rifles, when a cer- 
tain individual demanded 
a royalty so exorbitant 
that Samuel Reming- 
ton refused. " Roy- 
alty" is a po- 
lite word for 
"graft." 



^ .;-<tl«St :;{gj^^^J:^ a5_i;, , 




THE "LONG BOW" IN SHERWOOD FOREST 



One of Robin Hood's Famous Band Encounters 
a Savage Tusker at Close Range 



'1 



The Egyptian Palace 

In spite of such incidents the busi- 
ness was enormous. France took a 
total of one hundred and forty-five 
thousand arms; New York State 
bought twenty-one thousand for her 
miHtia; Porto Rico took ten thousand; 
Cuba eighty-nine 
thousand; Spain one 
hundred and thirty 
thousand more; and 
Egypt fifty-five 
thousand. 

The Egyptian 
Khedive was so im- 
pressed with the fill- 
ing of his contract 
that he presented 
Samuel Reming- 
ton with a 
marble palace 
near Cairo. From 
Alexico came 
orders for fift}' 
thousand arms; 
from Chile for 
twelve thousand. 
The great New York sporting goods 
house of Hartley and Graham, who 
further along will come into our story, 
disposed of one hundred and forty- 
four thousand. 

One of the agents of this latter con- 
cern put on Chinese clothes, made 
his way to Pekin, and gained the 
ear of Li Hung Chang, who ordered 
Remington rifles for the Chinese 
Army. All these brought the total 
sales up to the million mark. 
The Great Ball 

It was while the Spanish officers 
were in Ilion, that the town gave its 




ever-memorable Spanish Ball. Pat- 
rick Gilmore and his famous band 
were imported for the occasion and 
everything else was in proportion. 
Well might Ilion celebrate, for Spain 
and her colonies had taken more than 
three hundred thousand rifles, which 
meant millions in 
wages to the town. 
This was the high- 
water mark of that 
period. Conditions 
changed again and 
the day of huge 
foreign orders began 
to pass. One cause 
was graft. The 
Remingtons, being 
unwilling to take 
business through 
bribery, lost possible 
orders. Further- 
more, many coun- 
tries now established 
factories. 
Retire or Serve 

Thus another time 
came when a critical decision must 
be made. Philo Remington and his 
brother, being wealthy and full of 
honors, thought seriously of retiring 
from business. 

But success brings duties as well 
as rewards. The town depended on 
the factory, and the brothers felt that 
the hands must be kept from want. 
It meant to go backward, or to go 
forward upon new lines and again 
they decided to go forward. It was 
at this time that they brought out 
the famous Remington Typewriter, 
which now occupies a large building 



near the parent plant. Sewing ma- 
chines and farm implements also 
were made for a while. 
The Day of the Repeater 

But a new day had dawned in the 
history of arms. Just as bows had 
replaced slings, and the percussion 
system had taken the place of flint 
and steel, so now repeaters began to 
show their advantage over single fire. 

The Remingtons employed inven- 
tors to develop the world's best repeat- 
er, just as they had done with breech- 
loaders. The first model, developed 
at large expense proved unsatisfac- 
tory, and rather than have the Rem- 
ington name associated with anything 
inferior, the heavy investment was 
charged to profit and loss. 

James P. Lee's bolt mechanism was 
a different proposition. Mr. Lee, 
after experimenting for several years 
at the Remington factory, perfected 
the parent of modern military rifles. 
Why the Chinese Defeated the French 

These new rifles were first used in 
action by the Chinese. At the battle 
of Lang Son in the '8o's, the French 
with their Kropatcheck guns were 
three times repulsed by the Chinese 
armed with Remington-Lees. The 
American-made guns could be re- 
charged in a few seconds, while those 
of the French took much longer. 
The latter were at the mercy of the 
foe when their magazines were empty. 

Still difficulties followed. It was ex- 
pensive to build necessary machinery; 
there had been heavy losses in other 
enterprises; three hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars went in the Agri- 
cultural Works; the Scattergood Cot- 
ton Gin was a financial failure; the 



Sewing-machine lost about one mil- 
lion dollars; an enterprise for making 
electric-lighting plants was unsuc- 
cessful; large gifts to charity and edu- 
cation had lowered their resources; 
and finally they were led to disaster 
by helping a false friend. 
A Glimmer of Hope 

Just at this time Turkey appeared 
again in the market, and for a while 
hope ran high that her order for six 
hundred thousand rifles would be 
placed in Ilion. This would have 
saved the day. The Turkish experts 
reported favorably upon the Reming- 
ton-Lee, but the German Government 
was able finally to secure the order for 
a German manufacturer. 

Creditors now began to press. Some 
cash was raised by the brothers 
through selling their interest in the 
Remington Typewriter to its pre- 
sent manufacturers, but not suf- 
ficient to save them, and in 1886 
the business, that had begun 
seventy years before with the 
making of the amateur gun- 



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PAGES FROM THE CATALOG IN CHINESE 



barrel, passed into a receiver's hands. 

Two years were taken in winding 
up its affairs, and in March, i8S8, 
Hartley and Graham of New York, 
bought a large interest. Philo Rem- 
ington survived but one year longer. 
Like his father's, his death was also 
chargeable to service; he had con- 
tinued his business in order that his 
dependents might not come to want, 
and the struggle broke him dowui. 
The Entry of Marcellus Hartley 

Philo Remington died, but the 
business survived. To-day, as for- 
merly, the great factory at Ilion is 
pulsing with life and teeming with 
prosperity. To-day, as for nearly a 
century, the name Remington stands 
at the very head of the arm-making 
industry; the hunters and marksmen 
of the world look to it for the newest 
ideas, and the most perfect mechanism. 

This is largely due to another re- 
markable personality whose life and 
career will be touched on more fully in 



the following pages. At this point it is 
enough to say that a strong, far-sighted 
man of ample resources and great 
constructive ability now took control. 

That is why the highest grade of 
invention and mechanical skill have 
continued to be employed, and the 
American marksman, the best shot in 
the world, has been given the best 
arms to shoot with. Shotguns have 
been made selling as high as $750. 

Solid breech hammerless guns have 
carried the name Remington to a 
higher point in recent years than in 
any of its former days, and the mar- 
vellous auto-loading action seems to be 
practicalh' the last word in firearms. 
To-day 

Upon the death of Mr. Hartley in 
1902, his grandson, Marcellus Hart- 
ley Dodge became President of the 
Company, and his associates are 
unanimous in believing that in the 
future lie the greatest days of the 
venerable business. 




FIRST REMINGTON ARMORY 



The Tale of UMC Ammunition 



/ 



The Young Merchant 

IT TAKES more than a 
perfect gun to make 
good shooting, the am- 
munition also must 
be right. That is why 
you always specify 
, "U M C/' and the 
story of that famous red 
■ and white trademark is worth 
telling. At the start, the story is so 
much that of the remarkable man 
who founded the business that we 
shall gain a better understanding by 
glancing at the early life of Mr. 
Hartley. 

Thirty-one years after the younger 
Eliphalet Remington made his famous 
gun-barrel, Marcellus Hartley, at the 
age of twenty, became entry clerk and 
assistant book-keeper with Francis 
Tomes and Sons, dealers in hardware 
and sporting goods. Soon he found 
himself in the gun department, which 
meant more to him than he then 
realized. He advanced rapidly, and 
the firm sent him on Western and 



Southern trips to solicit trade. Trav- 
eling in those days had many hard- 
ships, and at one time he was ship- 
wrecked in a hurricane on Lake Erie 
with the thermometer at 15 degrees 
below zero. However, he gained 
much knowledge and experience, 
made many friends, and at twenty- 
seven decided to go into business 
for himself. 

One day three young men, J. Rut- 
sen Schuyler, Marcellus Hartley, and 
Malcolm Graham, met in a Alaiden 
Lane restaurant for a serious talk. 
Before they left, the firm of Schuyler, 
Hartley and Graham had been decided 
on, and soon after, March i, 1854, the 
new name appeared at 13 Maiden Lane. 
Weathering a Panic 

The young men had to borrow 
most of their capital, but had brains, 
energy, and experience of their own. 
Mr. Hartie}''s part consisted in trips 
to Europe to buy stock, principally 
sporting guns, and in acting as his 
own drummer in the West. They 



made money from the start, and by i860 had 
become the largest American dealers in firearms. 
Then came the war; America's young industry 
could supply only a part of the needed arms. 
While the factories at Ilion and elsewhere were 
pushed to their limit, it also became necessary to 
buy large quantities abroad. Mr. Hartley was the 
most competent buyer of foreign guns to be found, 
and Secretary-of-War Stanton surprised him with 
an appointment. With a rank equivalent to that 
of brigadier general, 
and a large credit upon 
Baring Brothers of 
London, this young 
man of thirty-five 
sailed abroad in July, 
1862. It meant a great 
business sacrifice but 
he was too patriotic to 
hesitate at his coun- 
try's need. 

A Difficult Mission 

The mission was 
very diffiicult. Eng- 
land was full of hostile 
spirit. The cotton 
supply for her great 
mills came from the 
Southern States, and 
the war hurt business, 
consequently there was 

wide-spread sympathy for the South that 
hindered Mr. Hartley at every turn. Con- 
federate agents were abroad endeavoring 
to buy up all possible supplies; and a third 
difficulty appeared in the combinations of 
manufacturers to corner the gun market. 

His task, therefore, was to create sym- 
pathy for the North, to out-general the 
Confederate agents, and to break the 
corners in arms. In all these he succeeded 
wonderfully. He printed and distributed 




s> ■ s^ 



EARLIER TYPES OI 




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LATER TYPES OK U 



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ARTRIDGES 



fifteen thousand copies of John Bright's great anti- 
slavery speech at Birmingham. First and last he 
secured about two hundred thousand rifles in the 
months he spent abroad. 
A Strange Encounter 

Many years later he attended a dinner where a 
Air. Trenholm was one of the speakers. In the 
course of his remarks this gentleman referred to war 
times, when he had to purchase arms as European 
agent for the Confederacy. Often when upon the 

point of securing 
greatly- needed guns 
he had found that some 
secret influence was 
defeating him. In one 
case a Belgian manu- 
facturer had slipped 
away when he had 
thought he was certain 
of his rifles, and he had 
wondered at the mys- 
terious skill of his un- 
known opponent. This 
dinner meeting was a 
-urprise to both, for it 
came out that the 
unknown was Air. 
Hartley. 

Returning from 

Europe he resumed the 

work of his firm, which 

had prospered greatly, 

and then his career broadened into four 

main lines of development. 

Four Enterprises 

One of these undertakings brought close 
relations with the Remingtons, and led later 
to the acquisition of that famous business. 
Another was the formation of the Bridge- 
port Gun Implement Co. to make rods, 
cleaners, extractors, powder measures, etc., 
for the old-style arms; and later, other 
sporting articles when breech-loaders 



^■SJ^^ 



i^/l 



,^R 



l?i^^^;. 



^-J 



changed the situation. A third was 
the engagement, to experiment with 
dynamos and lamps, of Mr. Hiram 
Maxim, since famous as the inventor 
of the Maxim gun, then best known 
in electricity. This laid the founda- 
tion of what is now the great West- 
inghouse Electric _,_, 
Company, later i 
sold to Mr. West- 
inghouse. The 
fourth was the sub- 
ject of this chapter, 
The Union Metallic 
Cartridge Co. 
From a Souvenir to a 
Great Industry 

\ ears before, 
while traveling in 
the West as sales- 
man for Tomes 
and Company, Air. 
Hartley was shown 
a roughly -made 
metallic shell for 
the charge of a gun. 
He begged the shell as a souvenir, 
and from this acorn a big oak finally 
grew. 

After the war, ten years later, he 
took action. By this time he fully 
realized the great importance of 
metallic cartridges for the new breech- 
loading arms. Several factories after 
trying to make them without much 
success had given up. These plants 
and patents were for sale. 

Mr. Hartley's firm bought the 

Crittenden and Tibbals Alanufactur- 

ing Company of South Coventry, 

and the business of C. D. Lett of 

Springfield. These they moved 

to Bridgeport, Connecticut, 



MARCELLUS HARTLEY 



and on August 9, 1867, llie Union 
Metallic Cartridge Co. was incorpo- 
rated. It consisted of Mr. Hartley, 
Mr. Schuyler, Pvlr. Graham, Mr. 
Charles H. Pond, and Mr. Robert J. 
White. The oak had taken root. 
Then began the first successful 
manufacture of me- 
tallic cartridges in 
the United States. 
Back in the '50's 
percussion caps, 
skin cartridges for 
revolvers, linen car- 
tridges for Sharp's 
breech-loaders, and 
a few poor rim-fire 
copper cartridges 
had been made, but 
now came this new 
industry more im- 
portant than all the 
rest combined. At 
first they made rim- 
fire cartridges, for 
the center-fire had 
not been invented, percussion caps 
and shotguns, but soon dropped the 
guns to concentrate on ammunition. 
A Versatile Genius 

Mr. Hartley and his associates by 
their business sagacity had created an 
opportunity, and were on the lookout 
for a mechanical genius. He came; 
his name was Alfred C. Hobbs. 

Hanging on the wall of the present 
New York City office is a former lock 
of the Bank of England. The English 
Government had ofi"ered a prize of 
one thousand dollars to any one who 
could pick it. IVIr. Hobbs, jack-of- 
all-trades, finally did it in fifty-one 
hours. He had been 




superintendent of the Howe Sewing ^ 
Machine Company, and, after five 
years brought his great ingenuity 
to the problems of cartridge-making. 
For twenty years he remained in 
charge, inventing nearly all the 
special machinery that made the 
business so successful. It is difficult 
to get a permit to visit the Bridgeport 
factory. The mechanical secrets are 
too valuable. 

Col. Berdan's Center-Fire Idea 

The first cartridges consisted in 
packing powder, ball, and wads into 
a single case so that the powder was 
ignited by a very small quantity of 
high explosive called ''priming mix- 
ture." For a while this priming mix- 
ture was concealed in a hollow rim 
and exploded by the pressure of the 
falling hammer. But Col. Berdan 
revolutionized cartridge-making. He 
manufactured a form of our present 
primer; placed the priming mixture 
in a little cup, then secured, just 
_. below but in 



OFF TO FRANCE. 



Material Aid for the Struggllnft Republic— 
A Carfto of Arms En Route. 

The steamer Ontario, of Bos'.OQ. twinship with the 
Srie, over which vessels the "Hub" went nearly wild 
vhen they were launched, and which were to ruin Mr. 
Cunard in return for his letter to the "Hubbites" on 
1 of their protest against the withdrawal 
ers from their little town, after lying at a 
dock in Boston ever since, came here a short time ago 
e if something could not be ma<le, all hope of ever 
doing so at Boston having been abandoned. 

She cleared from the Custom House yesterday for 
>wes and a market; with a full cargo of arms and 
munitions of war. as follows; — 
73.620 muskets. 
80.950 carbines. 
500 riSes. 

500 army revolvers. 
17.785.358 cartridges. 
1 case moulds. 
55 pieces artillery. 



The total value of the warlike mat 
hree-fourths of which is shipped by 
Ontario is a vessel of 8,889 
eighty 



1, SI. 853. 497, 

bou.se. The 

I. and has a crew of 



There were no passengers reported at the Custom 
House, hut it would be singular if there were not a 
few enthusiasts accompanying such an important 
addition to the resources of France. The Ontario 
a market," which means 
to get a convoy of French 
i.of-war in case any enteiprising German war 
iel took a fancy to try whether such a cargo was 
contraband of war The Ontario is commanded by_ 
Captaiu Towns* 



FROM THE N. Y. HERALD PRINTED IN 1870 



contact with 
this mixture, 
a piece of 
metal called 
the "anvil." 
This cup, 
now called 
the "prim- 
er, ' ' was 
seated in the 
center of the 
base of the 
c a r t r i dge. 
W hen the 
hammer fell 
and struck 




THE y M C FALTOKV IN 1873 



the firing-pin that ignited this little 
cap, the priming mixture was driven 
against the anvil and exploded. This 
explosion was transmitted to and 
ignited the powder through a small 
opening in the base of the shell. 
Owing to the position of the primer, 
these cartridges were called "central- 
fire cartridges" and are well known 
today. 

These cartridges were first made 
at the U AI C factory. 
Surrounded by the Enemy 

In 1870 occurred an incident un- 
equaled in the history of salesman- 
ship. France, in a desperate struggle 
with the invading Prussian armies, 
needed American arms and ammuni- 
tion, and in August the firm's special 
representative. Air. W. W. Reynolds, 
secured in Paris an order of con- 
siderable size, and also a large 
payment for preceding shipments. 
Paris being besieged, how was he 
to get them to America with every 
foot of the surrounding country 
guarded by watchful Germans.'' 
The Pinch of the Siege 

After a few davs food 




began to 

grow 

scarce, 

but ever 

as he 

strolled 

about he 

thought 

of escape. 

He must 

get his 

order 

and his 

payment 

past the 

Prussian 

lines. The only pathway lay through 

the air. Armed with a permit from 

Peard, the Finance Alinister, he sought 

out an old theater which had been 

converted into a balloon factory; to 

complete one balloon took ten days, 

and cost ^1,250 in gold. 

At this point word was received 
from the Government that IM. Gam- 
betta, the great War Minister, must 
leave Paris for reasons of state, and 
the use of the American's balloon 
was requested. A period of bad 
weather followed; from day to day 
Gambetta was forced to delay his 
start, so that the second balloon was 
finished before the first left. Friday, 
the morning of departure, came. An 
immense crowd of people drew to- 
gether; the members of the Govern- 
ment were present, and both bal- 
loons bore the French tricolor. Gam- 
betta and his companions climbed 
into the wicker basket attached to 
one. In the other were seated Mr. 
Reynolds, his friend Air. C. W. Way 
of New York, a French officer M. 



DISCt'SSING TERMS AT END OF FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 



C u z o n , 
and the 
aero- 
naut 
D u r e - 
vilio. 
Danger in 
the Air 
At eight 
minutes 
past e- 
1 e V e n 
theropes 
were 
th rown 
off^, and 
the balloons shot high into the clear 
sky. A breeze bore them toward the 
Prussian lines; soon there were puffs 
of smoke far beneath them. Bullets 
whistled through the air; cannon, 
musketry and rockets were turned 
upon the adventurers, and for a time 
they were in the greatest danger. 
Swiftly moving specks — mounted 
Uhlans — galloped along the thread- 
like roads below, expecting the voyag- 
ers would be forced to descend; but 
fortune favored, and the freshening 
breeze finally bore them out of range. 
A Narrow Escape 

Then there came a new peril. 
Gambetta's engineer lost control of 
his balloon which dropped close to the 
ground and then shot swiftly up again 
directly beneath Mr. Reynold's car; 
for a few minutes it looked as though 
a fatal collision could not be avoided. 
A sudden breath of wind changed its 
course, and once more the two swept 
onward together. 

Gambetta attempted to land at 
Criel but discovered just in time that 



^^^fflTt^r 



it was a Prussian camp. He escaped 
by throwing his baggage overboard 
and was wounded in his hand by a 
shot. Later he came down into a 
tree top near Amiens. The Americans 



ISBSf- 






kept on for ninety-five miles 
and made a safe landing at Ville 
Roy whence they, too, went by 
rail to Amiens. 
Russia and Turkey Clash 

Then Russia and Turkey de- 
cided to light. Both patronized 
the Bridgeport factory, and the 
strange situation developed of 
one plant daily grinding out 
thousands of cartridges for the 
combatants to lire against each 
other in deadly battle. Both 
nations had their inspectors at 
the works. The officers treated 
each other with formal courtesy 
while they inspected millions of 
the little messengers of death 
which were to fill the air of 
Southeastern Europe with noise 
and destruction. The chief 



Turkish inspector was the famous 
Tewfik Pasha, later Alinister of 
Finance, and at one time minister to 
this country. 
The "Irish Turk" 

Some of the older men of the 
Company recall one inspector 
called the "Irish Turk." A real 
Turk by birth, he had the face, the 
build, and even the brogue of a 
red-haired, blue-eyed Irishman. 
The Turkish contract amounted 
to two hundred and ten million 
rounds, the largest order ever 
placed in this country. 

The Russian contract really 
began some years before the war, 
in 1868. The coming of the 
Russian inspector, Gen. Gorloff", 
was of great advantage to the 

BSMH 




(f... .« l fi-^J. ^:-iJ ..^..i .*'f.~ f. ■ 
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^^.^^ 




PORTIONS OF PO 

SHOWING SI 








//cy /j7/ 



TORNEY GIVEN TO MR. REYNOI.nS. 
IF FIRM ANIl FRFNill \'1SI-,S 



business. This competent officer was 
a very severe inspector, and thus 
helped establish the highest standard 
of product. After two years of 
strict application to business Mr. 
White, secretary of the Company, 
took him out for a social evening; 
Gen. Gorloff then remarked that it 
was his first outing in America, and 
added that if the contract were a 
failure he might as well blow his 
brains out. 

Was it a failure.'' Gen. Gorloff re- 
ported: "There have been fired in 
our regular work twenty thousand, 
seven hundred and twenty cartridges 
without one missfire, and two hundred 
reloaded ten times, making twenty- 
two thousand, seven hundred and 
twenty total, without a missfire, in the 
inspection of two million." 
Recovered from a Wreck 

Robert J. White reported in 1871: 
"The bark Forya from New York to 
Cronstadt with three million, six hun- 
dred and forty-five thousand, one 
hundred and twenty U AI C cart- 
ridges for the Russian Government 
was dismasted in a gale, had the deck 
stove in, and was abandoned at sea. 
The steamer Iowa from Liverpool 
found her partly filled with water, 
pumped her out, and towed her to 




New York, arriving April, 1871. 
Much of this ammunition had been 
under water five weeks. The whole 
was taken out and returned to the 
factory, the wet paper boxes removed, 
and ten thousand, four hundred and 
fifty of the cartridges fired, proving 
them uninjured." Twenty years later 
more of this lot were tested without 
a missfire. U M C cartridges from 
the wrecked "Alaine," found in good 
condition after thirteen years' sub- 
mergence, furnish another striking 
example. Could there be better proof 
of the quality of the primer, its water- 
tight fit in the primer pocket, or the 
excellence of the lubricator and the 
crimp? 

In 1871, the Russian Grand Duke 
Alexis came to this country and 
visited Bridgeport, where he made a 
speech. The U AI C plant was in 
gala attire, one long line of "grass- 
hopper machines" being decorated 
with bouquets that rose and fell 
with the motion of the mechanism. 
So many factory girls appeared in 
silk dresses that the Duke was much 
amazed at the condition of operatives 
in America. 
The Russian Tramp 

A poorly clothed man, apparently 
a vagrant, one day approached Gen. 
Gorloff with a request for work. He 
said he was a Russian who had been 
told by the Consulate in New York 
that he might find a job at Bridge- 
port. The General directed him 
to the U M C Company wdio 
set him to work cleaning 
the office, 



CHARGF 01- THE Tl RKb AT KAKAH \SSANKOI 




looking after guns, etc. 
Though his clothes were 
shabby, he had small 
hands and feet, and kept 
himself remarkably 
clean. One day, two 
months later, he failed 
to appear as usual, but 
about ten o'clock arrived 
faultlessly attired from 
silk hat to polished 
shoes, and said with a 
courtly bow: "Good 
morning. General, I leave you to- 
day. Good-by." 

He was a nobleman's son who had 
been detailed to serve as a spy upon 
the General. 
An International Secret 

At one time Gen. Gorloff rejected a 
large quantity of cartridges to the 
great surprise of the Company who 
had believed them perfect. Spain, 
engaged with a Cuban rebellion, 
promptly bid for the rejected lot; 
there had been a secret understanding 
that these should be refused by Russia 
to aid Spain. 

It was well that Spain secured this 
shipment since the Insurrectionists 
had not neglected to provide them- 
selves with Remington rifles and 
U M C ammuntion. In the later 
Cuban rebellion, that just preceded 
the Spanish-American War, all 
the forces fighting under Gomez, 
Maceo, Garcia, and the others, were 
so equipped although it had been a 
difficult matter for the "Junta" to 
forward their munitions to the scene 
of war. More than one such fili- 
bustering expedition was overtaken 
and captured within the three-mile 



limit by United States authorities. 
Very much the same experience 
marked many of the other Central 
and South American wars and up- 
risings. However much these factions 
might differ among themselves, they 
all agreed as to what were the best 
rifles and cartridges. In one case there 
was thecurious situationof twonatlons 
■ — Colombia and 
Venezuela — at 
war with each 
other, whileasep- 
arate insurrec- 
tion was proceed- 
ing in each coun- 
try; all four of 
the warring bod- 
ies fired U M C 
bullets from 
Remington rifles. 
Perhaps noone 
is more deeply 
versed in the in- 
side stories of in- 
ternational conflicts during the past 
thirty years than is Mr. W. J. Bruff, 
the Company's general manager. Did 
not the seal of business confidence 
fasten his lips, there is much of recent 
history that he might illumine. 
Making Paper Shells 

In the panic of 1873, the steady 
wages of the U M C plant relieved 
Bridgeport. This same year the Com- 
pany bought from C. D. Wells of 
Springfield his equipment for making 
paper shells which were practically all 
hand-made. Soon machines were in- 
vented for this work, — an important 
development, because shotguns were 
rapidly increasing in use. This was 




D DUKE ALEXIS AND 
GENERAL CUSTER 



A 



\A'C?k, 



-,. re^y 



due 
,. to the 
fact 
.-■' that as 
the country 
became settled 
and big game grew 
/ harder to find, 
sportsmen gave 
more attention to 
wing-shooting. A sup- 
posedly ample stock was 
made up, and the Com- 
pany advertised that 
such a shell was on 
the market. Orders 
aggregating ten million, 
fairly flooded the plant, 
thus showing the power 
of advertising and the 
size of the market. 

The first U M C 
shot shells were of 
brass, but the paper 
shell followed. At 
first furnished to be 
loaded by sportsmen, the 
factory began supph'ing them 
ready -loaded in the '8o's. 
To-day several hundred mil- 
lions are turned out each year. 
Brains and Opportunities 

The vast plant — much the 



largest ammuni- 
tion factory in the 
." world — is thus a pro- 
-- i/ - . ■' duct of " Brains and Op- 
-'W-^r portunity." Every new rifle, 

^^ shotgun or revolver of any 
y caliber, is known immediately; 
thereupon the best ballistic experts 
in the country, under the direction 
of Mr. Wm. M. Thomas, Ballistic 
Engineer, at once develop the load 
best adapted to it. So perfect and 
uniform are the results, that arm- 
makers have adopted them as stand- 
ard, and work in accord with the 
U IM C Company in making changes. 

One Incident illustrates the care 
taken at every point: In making 
paper shells, the paper tube, where 
the edges lap, naturally had a ridge 
that was awkward in the gun. In 
order to lap over smoothly, machinery 
was introduced to grind thin these 
edges; this step having been noted 
by ]\Ir. Bird, the paper manufacturer, 
he developed a thin -edged paper 
specially for this process. That is 
why a U M C loaded shell slips so 
smoothly into your gun. 
Mr. Hartley's Energy 

Until his death in 1902, Mr. Hartley 
watched the work closely, and threw 
into it his inspiring energy. Once 
while making empty paper shells the 
primer had to be changed. At the 
factory great haste was being made, 
when Mr. Hartley arrived and in 
his forceful way exclaimed: "Do it 
more rapidly. Put benches in the 
storehouses. Get a thousand more 
girls if necessary. I want those 
shells reprimed!" It was done. 

The marvelous speed with 



'F'' 'X:^ 




DEER-STALKING WITH THE CROSS-BOW 



This Compact Arm with its Small Bolt and Great 
Power was Popular with Many Sportsmen 









/tr^/ 



which the great ten- 
story shot-tower was '',> 
rushed to completion 
several years ago, shows 
that the energetic spirit 
of Air. Hartley survives a 
in the present manage- | 
ment. The ground was | 
broken in July, and per- f 
feet shot produced in „ 
the following February. \ 
Smokeless powder f 
came into use; the 
U AI C Company led 
in applying it to fixed 
ammunition. It needed 



•/a ' - A,--' 

X.'3 Co..^ (e. 



■ /' 



/',. 









ORIGINAL EXPENSE ACCOl'NT 

SHOWING BALLOON ITEM ^ i 



creasing scale. 
Ideas born within 
its walls have devel- 
oped until they re- 
quired more build- 
ings. The growth 
has been continu- 
ously from within 
outward. Alen 
once factory hands 
have risen by their 
own abilities to 
important places, 
as Jerome Orcutt 
has done — forty-six 
years ago a tool- 



new primers for perfect ignition, after maker, now the second vice-president, 

careful experiments, these were per- This great Company has played Its 

fected, resulting in the "Nitro Club" part in the wars of the earth but the 

and "Arrow" brands of shot shells. principal role today is that of peace 

Foreign orders, an increasing de- in serving hunters and marksmen, 

mand for sporting ammunition, both For these it produces loads to fit 

at home and abroad, the needs of every known make of modern hand 

the growing army of operatives, the firearm, and carries in stock the 

addition of much new machinery, the enormous total of fifteen thousand 

necessary equipment for so great a diflferent kinds of loads, 

business — all of these have compelled The subject is growing more com- 

from time to time repeated enlarge- plicated as new inventions are being 

ments of the factory. developed; in the future, as in the 

And so J^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^8 past, the Union Aletallic Cartridge 

plant's his- mf^^^^^ ^ ^ory has Company will be found foremost in 

run on in M ffi ffll™ ml ever-in- the manufacture of ammunition. 



/J 




y-SrS\ 



A Visit to the Bridgeport Plant 



'11 



Getting Impressions 

IT IS no easy matter to 
secure a pass to the 
Bridgeport plant. Its 
great advantage over 
other concerns lies, to 
; ■ a large degree, in the 
exclusive machinery, 
that has been developed at so much 
pains and expense, and the secrets of 
which are so carefully guarded. In 
our case, however, there will be 
nothing to hinder us from getting a 
few general impressions, provided 
we do not go into mechanical 
details too closely. 

The very size of the great manu- 
factory is impressive — sixteen 
acres of floor space, crowded 
with machinery, and resound- 
ing with activity. In building 
after building, floor above 
floor, the sight is similar: 
^, / the long rows of busy 

''d\ machines, the whirling 

network of shafts and 
•■■ belts above, the in- 



tent operatives, and the steady click- 
ing of innumerable parts blended into 
a softened wide-spread sound. It 
seems absolutely endless; it is a mat- 
ter of hours to go through the plant. 
Stop at one of the machines, and see 
the speed and accuracy with which it 
turns out its product; then calculate 
the entire number of machines and 








you will begin to gain a little idea as 
to what the total output of this vast 
institution must be. 

More than once you will find your- 
self wondering whether there can be 
guns enough in the world, or fingers 
enough to press their triggers, to use 
such a tremendous production of 
ammunition. But there are, and the 
demand is steadily increasing. This 
old world is a pretty big place after all. 
No Labor Troubles 

One of the earliest impressions }'ou 
are sure to get is of the superior grade 
of employes. These are not the ordi- 
nary factory hands, but men and 
women of a very intelligent type — 
Americans mainly. They are work- 
ing under such comfortable condi- 
tions of light, heat and ventilation, 
and the machines are equipped with 
such devices for safety and conven- 




ience, that you are not surprised at 
this general air of content, so different 
from that found in many plants. 

It is an interesting fact that, among 
the 2,500 hands, labor troubles have 
been practically unknown throughout 
the Company's entire history. This 
truly speaks volumes, both for the 
reasonableness of the hands, and the 




consideration of the management. 
High wages, steady employment, con- 
siderate treatment and opportunities 
for advancement, these have been 
the policy from the first, and the men 
at the top are in many cases those 
who have grown old in the service. 
Handling Deadly Explosives 

Another thing to strike you is the 
matter-of-fact way in which these op- 
eratives, girls in many cases, handle 
the most terrible compounds. We 
stop, for example, where they are 
making primers to go in the head of 
your loaded shell, in order that it may 
not miss fire when the bunch of quail 
whirrs suddenly into the air from 
the sheltering grasses. That grayish, 
pasty mass is wet fulminate of mer- 
cury. Suppose it should dry a trifle 



too rapidly. It would be the 
last thing you ever did suppose, 
for there is force enough in 
that double handful to blow- 
its surroundings into fragments. 
You edge away a little, and no 
wonder, but the girl who handles 
it shows no fear as she deftly 
but carefully presses it into 








moulds which separate it into the 
proper sizes for primers. She knows 
that in its present moist condition it 
cannot explode. 
Extreme Precautions 

Or, perhaps, we may be watching 
one of the many loading machines. 
There is a certain suggestiveness in 
the way the machines are separated 
by partitions. The man in charge 
takes a small carrier of powder from 
a case in the outside wall and shuts 
the door, then carefully empties it 
into the reservoir of his machine, and 
watches alertly while it packs the 
proper portions into the waiting shells. 
He looks like a careful man, and needs 
to be. You do not stand too close. 

*The bullet breaks a metal tape at the moment of 
leaving the muzzle. This time and the time of striking 
target are electrically recorded on the Chronograph. 



The empty carrier then passes 
through a little door at the side of the 
building, and drops into the yawning 
mouth of an automatic tube. In the 
twinkling of an eye, it appears in front 
of the operator in one of the distrib- 
uting stations where it is refilled, and 
returned to its proper loading ma- 
chine, in order to keep the machine 
going at a perfectly uniform rate; 
while at the same time it allows but a 
minimum amount of powder to re- 
main in the building at any moment. 
Each machine has but just sufficient 
powder in its hopper to run until a 
new supply can reach it. Greater 
precaution than this cannot be imag- 
ined, Illustrating as it does, that no 
effort has been spared to protect the 
lives of the operators. 
Learning a Secret 

Did you ever find an imperfect 





cart- 
rid ge 
orshot 
shell 
i n a 
UMC 
box? 
It is 
hardh' 
pos- 
sible. 
Does- "^ 
n't it strikeyou as re- 
markable that, in an 
output of something 
like four million per 
day, every cartridge 
should be perfect? 

Such things are 
not accidental. 
The secret is 
UMC inspection. 
Let us see what that 
means. It means 
laboratory tests to 
start with. Here are 
brought many sam- 
ples of the body pa- 
per, wad paper, met- 
als, water- proofing 
mixture, fulminate of mercur}', sul- 
phur, chlorate of potash, antimon}' 
sulphide, powder, wax, and other in- 
gredients, and even the operating 
materials such as coal, grease, oil, and 
soaps. In this room we see expert 
chemists and metallurgists with their 
test-tubes, scales, Bunsen burners, 
retorts, tensile machines, microscopes, 
and other scientific-looking apparatus, 
busily hunting for defects. 



PUTTING METAL HEADS ON PAPER SHOT SHELLS 




For 
exam- 
p 1 e , 
one 
mark- 
e r is 
exam- 
ining 
a sup- 
ply of 
cupro- 
nickel, such as is used 
in jacketing certain 
bullets. A corner of 
each strip is first bent 
over at right angles^ 
then back in the other 
direction until it is 
doubled, then 
straightened. It does 
not show the slight- 
est sign of breaking 
or cracking in spite 
of the severe treat- 
ment, therefore it is 
perfect. Let but the 
least flaw appear, and 
the shipment is re- 
jected. 
Photographing the Invisible 

Another man is engaged in taking 
photographs of the invisible — invisi- 
ble, that is, to the naked eye. By 
means of a powerful microscope at- 
tachment he first enlarges tiny metal 
crystals until it can be seen whether 
the structure shows the chance of 
fracture. This is most important. 
It indicates why UMC shells do not 
burst in use. Even the severe govern- 



*Such is the speed of these presses, that the brief interruption necessary for taking this photograph, caused 
the loss of nearly 40,000 cartridge shells, although the presses were stopped for less than five minutes. 



ment test, requiring that the same 
shell be fired and reloaded twenty 
times does not worry this plant, for it 
has the record of some of its shells, that 
have been fired and reloaded eighty 
times, finishing in good condition. 

Then come the various branches of 
the inspection work. These are too 
many and long to examine in detail. 
Our guide explains that the Inspec- 
tion Department is a unit by itself, 
distinct from the rest of the shop. 
Its head reports directly to the Man- 
ager of Works and is not connected 
with the manufacturing departments. 
His word is law. No matter whether 
a carload shipment is being held up 
for a handful of one particular kind 
of cartridge, the car cannot go until 
this man is satisfied that all are 
right. 
Expensive Care 

It is expensive to take such pains. 
We are told that it costs more to 
inspect shot shells than it does to load 
them, and that some of the high-power 
rifle cartridges are inspected so many 
times that, were it not for the use of 
automatic machinery, they could not 
be sold at a reasonable price. Here 
and there, as we go, we get glimpses 
of this process which takes the entire 
time of several hundred employes. 
At one point large inspection belts 
covered with the product, move slowly 
between rows of bright-eyed girls who 
occasionally make little darting grabs 
at something that has seemed defect- 
ive to their practiced glance. In 
other rooms, long rows of operatives 
are holding hands full of shells up to 
the light, or rolling them over their 
hands in the same keen search. 



The Inspection of Empty Shells 

Perhaps it may be interesting to 
quote from a summary prepared by 
IMr. Thomas, showing but one stage 
of the process: 

'' Shot shells are received by inspec- 
tion department after the heads, 
tubes, bodies, primers, and battery 
cups have been carefully examined, 
gauged, sized and tested; they are 
then: 

"(i) Gauged for body diameter 
in chamber gauges. 

"(2) Gauged for head thickness 
and head diameter, and if any quan- 
tity of these defects be found, all 
shells in inspection department of 
that particular brand are returned 
to manufacturing department to be 
either corrected or scrapped. 

"(3) Primers carefully examined. 

" (4) Entire shell examined for 



M. 




«m SHOT TO' 
■■■■■■■■■ 



SHOT TOWER — TALLEST BUILDING IN 



iNNKi: ucL r 



t«l 



m i 




any blemish which might mar the 
general appearance. Slight scratches 
on head, or spots on bodies are suf- 
ficient causes for their rejection. The 
average consumer would be unable to 
determine in many cases, if shown 
our scrap pile, why the shells in 
question had been rejected." 

Similarly, metallic cartridges 
must have shells gauged for size of 
pocket; heads gauged for diam- 
eter; shells carefully inspected 
inside and out for flaws, dents 
and buckled necks; primer pockets 
examined for shape and condition; 
shells gauged for length; shells 
gauged in chamber gauge for body 
diameter; necked shells gauged for 
profile and distance from head; 
shells examined for depth of primer 
seating, condition of anvil, and ex- 
ploded primer; and shells finally gone 
over for general defects that may 
have escaped other inspections. 
Weighing Bullets 

In the same spirit, girls with deli- 
cate scales, like those you see in a 



druggist's prescription department, 
are weighing the bullets carefully, 
one by one, hour after hour, day after 
day, giving all their thought and at- 
tention to this one thing; while other 
employes explode about two million 
primers a year in testing their sensi- 
tiveness. 

The loaded shells and cartridges go 
through a series of gauges and tests 
seemingly unnecessary after all that 
have preceded the loading. For ex- 
ample, it does look a little wasteful 
to see men take shells at random from 
the various loading machines and 
packing tables, in order to cut them 
up and examine the contents. When 
we learn that a half-million perfectly 
good shells are thus destroyed each 
year, it impresses us as painstaking 
run mad, but it helps to explain why 
there are no misfires in your U M C 
box. 
Testing for All the World 

And then at last come the shooting 
tests. Five hundred thousand rim- 
fire cartridges, two hundred and fifty 



thousand center-tire cartridges, and 
five hundred thousand loaded shells 
must still be sacrificed on the various 
shooting ranges each year, in order to 
study Velocity, Intensity of Sound, 
Penetration, Pressure, and Shot Pat- 
tern, also the Alushrooming qualities 
of soft-point bullets, and the Rigidity 
of those with metal cases. Each of 
these points in what is known as the 
"Ballistic" work has special experts 
and apparatus. There is no guess- 
work anywhere. 

Among other points we step into 
the gun-room. It looks like the 
arsenal of a fort. There are case after 
case of rifles, shotguns, revolvers, and 
pistols of practically every style, 
caliber, and make, ever put on the 
market, some of them classified as 
English, German, Turkish, Argentine, 
French, etc. These are all for test 
purposes, for it is the determination 
of the Company to produce the 
standard load for every known kind 
of firearms; and as soon as a new type 
appears anywhere, its counterpart 



finds its way into this 
room. In an adjoin- 
ing room, filled with 
pungent fumes of 
powder, a rackful of 
these guns is being used 
with the appropriate loads. 

Thus the process of destruction 
serves that of construction, and the 
apparent waste of a large sum of 
money each year in "burning pow- 
der," is really a wise economy. 
Alaintaining the standard at what- 
ever cost, is a business investment in 
the future. 
Deer In the Powder Park 

Two miles distant is the powder 
park, a really beautiful spot where 
curiously enough, a small herd of wild 
deer that broke into the park several 
years ago, have lived contentedly ever 
since. Many small buildings are 
scattered through the three hundred 
and sixty-one acres, and in these is 
stored the main supply of powder. 
By means of a pouring plant this pow- 
der is turned from the kegs into 






?fi 




THE ENTRANCES THE INDUSTRIAL ARMY JUST BEGINNING TO LEAVE 



-^^ 




i^i? 



(. \Ki krrx.i [ 01 \i s \ioKi- 

rHAN 1 (tl)() (Hill (.1 SM \j I |.sl 
(HI 1 II ()\ H\NI)) 



small car- 
riers, and 
every for- 
t y - f i V e 
minutes 
one of 
the Com- 
pany's lit- 
tle engines 
takes a 
single car 
of these 
sealed car- 
riers over 
their pri- 
vate rail- 
way to the 
factor}'. 
Thus the 
powder is 
delivered 
only as fast 
as needed. 



Various Departments 

It is not our purpose to see things 
systematically, and we shall ramble 
at will from one department to 
another. At one place we find 
whole rows of machinery turning out 
old-fashioned percussion caps, and 
realize that there must be still many 
of the old muzzle-loading nipple guns 
in use in various out-of-the-way cor- 
ners. Again, we find somewhat sim- 
ilar machines pressing the steel linings 
that have made the U M C steel-lined 
shot shells famous the world over. 
In another room we sniff the fra- 
grance of cooking flour, sug- 
'^ \ - gestive of a cracker bakery, 
but it is only paste for the 
-•■ paper tubes of the shot 

shells. Again, here is the 



heavy, steamy odor of wet felt where 
the wads are being made; and there 
on the other hand, are printing presses 
of unusual shape turning out a shower 
of printed "top-shot wads." 

If you look at the end of your shot- 
gun load you will find the shell 
closed with a disc of cardboard bear- 
ing the size and description of that 
particular load. If you were to dig 
out this disc you would find it printed 
on both sides. Why.'' 
Economy of Handling 

Formerh' these were printed on 
one side only, but in handling mil- 
lions of such small objects a large 
number were sure to be turned over, 
and then needed to be righted. This 
took time, and time is money. 
Finally it was decided to print on 
both sides, which was quite as easy, 
and then the discs would be always 
right side up. 

Other presses are printing labels 
and box covers. At one point girls 
are fitting cardboard boxes together 
with a deft speed that is fascinating 
to watch. At other points packing 
is going on with many clever little 
mechanical aids to quick handling. 

And then there are the great ware- 
rooms for raw materials, and the 
other rooms for crating, marking, and 
trundling into waiting box cars. 
The Big Teapot 

High abo\e the huge plant stand 
two objects that may be seen for 
miles around. One of these is the 
new shot tower, and the other the 
water tank of one hundred thousand 
gallons, — the "big teapot" they call 
it familiarly — which is connected with 
the intricate system of sprinkler pipes 



^^^^ 




in every building. This means tliat 
every nine square feet of floor space 
has automatic fire protection. 

Near this is the pov^^er plant with 
its lofty boilers, mighty engines, 
and marvelous dynamos sending life 
through wires to the army of machines. 

The electrical equipment is of the 
finest, and the switchboards are every- 
where enclosed in wall cases with 
glass doors and asbestos lining, to 
guard against chance of accident. 
Built in Seven Months 

All this time, however, we have 
had the shot tower in mind. Occa- 
sionally we have caught glimpses of 
it from various windows, and when we 
have stepped outdoors in passing 
from building to building, there it has 
stood, dominating the whole scene. 

Our guide, with the satisfied air of 
having saved the best for the last, 
now says that we will go there, and 
tells us, as we cross the yard, how it 
was rushed to completion in seven 
months, and that it represents the last 
word in scientific shot production. 

The great building is solid masonry, 
metal, and concrete. There does not 
seem to be a burnable square inch 
about it anywhere. Two large iron 
cylinders 
descend 
in the 



center, coming down through the ceil- 
ing from above; we are invited to look 
through an open port in one of these. 
Raining Shot 

We see nothing but the whitened 
opposite wall, against which a light 
burns. 

It appears absolutely empty, though 
within it is raining such a swift 
shower of invisible metal that if we 
were to stretch our hands into the 
apparently vacant space they would 
be torn from our arms. 

A large water tank below is churned 
into foam with the impact of the 
falling shot, and as we look down- 
ward we make out finally the haze of 
motion. It is so interesting that we 
take the elevator and rise ten stories 
to the source of the shower. 

Here high in the air are the large 
caldrons where many pigs of lead, 
with the proper alloy, are melted into 
a sort of metallic soup. This is fed 
into small compartments containing 
sieves or screens, through the meshes 
of which the shining drops appear 
and then plunge swiftly downward. 
Cascades of Shot 

But this only begins the process. 
Taken from the water tanks and 




hoisted up again, the shot pellets, in 
a second journey down, through com- 
plicated devices, are sorted, tumbled, 
polished, graded, coated with graphite, 
and finally stored. 

The building is almost bare of work- 
men; everything is mechanical. 

One pretty sight is that of cascades 
of shot pouring out of spouts, and 
rolling smoothly down glass inclines, 
tier above tier. Here perfect shot, 
moving more swiftly than the occa- 
sional imperfect ones, shoot over low 
partitions, which check the latter, and 
drop them into separate bins. Noth- 
ing imperfect enters any U M C load. 

A Bunch of Statistics 

Now we return to our starting point, 
but our guide feels that we should 
take with us figures of what we have 
seen, and runs over the following list: 

"There are one hundred and one 
buildings with a total 
floor area of sixteen acres, 
in a twenty - five - acre 
tract. Includingthe 
powder park and other 
land, the Company owns 
four hundred and twen- 
ty-seven acres. 

"There are fifty thou- 
sand dollars' worth of fire 
protection apparatus. 

"The private railway 
system includes about a 
mile of track between 
the buildings, in addition 
to the track running out 
to the powder park. 

"About four million 
loads are produced each 
working day. These re- -^ 



quire an average of thirty-five opera- 
tions each, or one hundred and forty 
million operations in ten hours. 

"One day's shipment will some- 
times run to seven million loads. 

"From four to five million paper 
wads are cut every day. 

" In the shot tower one hundred and 
fifty tons of metal can be daily con- 
verted into the inconceivable total of 
twelve hundred million — one and 
one-fifth billions — of shot pellets. 
Laid out in a row touching each other, 
one day's production of shot would 
reach two thousand miles, or from 
New York to Salt Lake City. 

"The ammunition produced ranges 
all the way from tiny 'B. B. cap' 
cartridges to five-inch shells. Some- 
thing over oneniilHon of these smallest 
cartridges would be required to equal 
one of the largest." 

The Office Building 

Nothing has been said 
of the brain of the plant, 
its offices. These are to 
be found in every fac- 
tory, but rarely so spa- 
cious as here, occupy- 
ing as they do a whole 
building with many 
departments. Here 
we began, and here 
weend our journey, 
with bodies tired 
and minds weary 
but inter- 
e s t e d . 




M\Rl KLUS HARTLEY DOUliE 

PRESIDENT 

AT THE BRIDGEPORT PLANT 



"gsp.- 



IP 




' . 1 ,3.1 






An Interesting Day at Ilion 



The Growth of Eighty Years 

N— > OT far from the banks of 
the Erie Canal, where 
it runs through Ilion, 
stands a group of large 
brick buildings about 
whose early days we 
have already learned. Here, 
as described in an earlier chapter, 
came Eliphalet Remington more than 
eighty years ago; but how amazed he 
would have been could he have real- 
ized the greatness of its present 
growth, for, as we roam through the 
works, we come upon signs, "Building 
No. 53," "Building No. 69," etc. It 
is borne in upon us that a deal of 
space is required to produce all the 
Remington arms that the world de- 
mands. 

Of course, as in the cartridge fac- 
tory, we find here similar vistas of 
swiftly whirring shafts, belts and pul- 
leys; long rows of resounding machin- 
ery, and armies of operators. There 
are, however, points in which the 



manufacture of guns differs from all 

other processes. These we will notice 

especially. 

To Prevent Bursting 

At the outset, we touch a point of 
interest. When you raise a gun to 
your shoulder you take a chance. It 
must be pressed close to your face, 
since that is the only way for you to 
sight it. It must contain a powerful 
charge, or it will not shoot to kill. 
Suppose that there be a flaw in the 
barrel near the base, the gun might 
explode with serious results. 

This often happened with the 
clumsy arms of olden time. It is 
occasionally heard of today. 

Therefore, if you are a sportsman, 
it is reassuring to step into the room 
where they test materials. Modern 
science has learned a thousand things. 
It takes no chances. 

A new shipment of steel enters the 
works. It comes from a steel mill 
famous for its products, and is sup- 



.' ' 



ry 




^3CV 



posed to be made upon a 

formula which must give 

perfect results, according to the 

laws of metallurgy, but even these 

passports are not sufficient. It must 

stand the test. 

By Machine and Chemistry 

Accordingly, numerous samples are 
taken from different parts of the lot 
and fashioned into "Test Plugs." 
Question number one is asked of the 
metal by the keen-eyed man in 
charge of the laboratory: 

"Were you carefully made upon 
that formula.'' Do you contain the 
exact percentage of carbon which 
will give the best results.^" 

The answer involves weighing in 
the most delicate scales, and test- 
ing with chemical reactions until it 
is absolutely certain that the steel 
is according to formula, and Is uni- 
form throughout. But this does 
not pass it until question number 
two is asked: 
"Are you as strong as you should 
be.^ Come, show your strength." 
And now the test plugs go into 
a powerful contrivance that strains 
them in the most scientific way, 
and shows the answer upon an 
indicator. Since the giant force 
of 300,000 pounds pressure to the 
square inch can be brought to bear, 
; the slender plug must break at 
j some point, and this point 

is carefully recorded. 

If it fall even a trifle 

short of the strength 

required, which is 

5,000 pounds to the 

square inch, more 



' '''i;: i^M 
■'^'■■M- 
-^■■S-^ 



than double the pressure .^^,,1, 

of a service charge, the steel 
is rejected. That is one of the reasons 
why you can raise your Remington 
to your face with perfect safety. 

Remington arms, by the way, are 
made of "acid open-hearth steel," 
which is stronger, weight for weight, 
than the Bessemer steel ~' j.;- 

used by most manu- ;; ~ ', 

facturers. .^ -,; 

We " Pass the Test " 

If visitors were tested as severely 
as the material, we should all be 
turned back at this point. Fortun- 
ately, we are favored and allowed to 
pass inside. Here we spend, most in- 
terestingly, several hours wandering 
from building to building, and admir- 
ing the ingenious skill with which the 
modern firearm is produced. 

Some departments quiver with 
the shock of huge hammers which . 
come crashing down upon the 
metal parts and give them, 
roughly, the shape that 
later will be finished and 
perfected by machine and 
tool. 

At other times, we 
stand fascinated by the 
automatic machinery 
that hums busily 
along, almost unat- 
tended as some 
faithful, intel- 
ligent servant 
who can be 
trusted to work by himself. 

In one place, a press is 
rapidly engaged in giving 
the correct bend to 





AN UNEXPECTED MEETING 



The "Kentucky Rifle" with its Flint-Lock was 
Accurate but must be Muzzle-Charged 




some small but important part. It 
stops its great pressure at exactly the 
right point with the most mathemat- 
ical nicety, and a visitor remarks: 
"Such a delicate touch as that might 
almost play billiards!" 
Making Barrels 

One of the most important features 
is, of course, the making of barrels. 
The machines for drilling and boring 
, are the best that money can buy, and 

ljyf4. the operatives the most skilful to 
be found anywhere. Care at this 
stage reduces the necessity for 
straightening later. Every point 
is given the minutest atten- 
tion. In drilling 22 calibers, 
for example, the length of the 
hole must be from loo to 125 times 
the diameter of the drill. 

Improvements have made it pos- 
sible to drill harder steel than for- 
merly. This reduces the weight of 
the gun, and is important to the man 
who carries it. 
Taking off 2-1000 of an Inch 

The boring is an especially deli- 
cate task. In choke-boring your 
shotgun, for example, the final ream- 
er took off only 2-1000 of an inch. 
Think of such a gossamer thread 
of metal! But it insures accuracy. 



No pains can be too great for that. 

This exquisite painstaking will be 
seen still more in the barrel-inspec- 
tion department, to which we will go 
now. In passing, we must not forget 
the grinding shop where is perhaps 
the finest battery of grinding ma- 
chines in the United States; or the 
polishers running at the dizzy speed 
of 1,500 to 1,700 revo- 
lutions per minute, and 
making the inside of the 
barrel shine like glass. 
This high polish is im- 
portant for it resists rust 
and prevents leading. 

That is the atmosphere 
of the whole place. Every 
action has its reason. 
There is not an unneces- 
sary motion made by 
any one, and there is 
not one necessary thing 
omitted, whatevei the 
cost or trouble. 

Looking at Reflected Lines 

But here is the In- 
spection Department. 
Hanging in the windows are trans- 
lucent frames with a black line across 
the center of each. You will see 
one of the inspectors take a barrel 
from the waiting rack, hold one end 
toward the light, squint critically 
through the tube, and lay it aside 
approvingly. 

You pick it up and follow his ex- 
ample. First, you point it straight 
at the black cross-line on the frame. 
Then you tip up the farther end 
ever so little, and see how two re- 
flected shade lines form on 





GUNS AND RIFLES 



the shining inner surface and run 
down the barrel toward your eye. 
These lines are straight as a die, there- 
fore, the barrel is perfect. Should 
either one waver the slightest frac- 
tion the inspector's quick eye at once 
detects it. Yours might not. Swiftly 
he picks up one after another and 
repeats the process. Ah! there is 
one that doesn't sat- 
isfy. This he places 
in a frame having a 
three - point bearing ; 
taps it gently once or 
twice, looks through 
it again, repeats the 
process, and now finds 
it absolutely true. 

Or perhaps he uses 
a slightly different de- 
vice and does the 
straightening with a 
hook instead of a ham- 
mer. Either method 
accomplishes the pur- 
pose. 
An Inspecting Machine 

But the spirit of the 
factory never rests 
contented with past achievements. 
That is why there is now being in- 
troduced a new machine, of even 
greater delicacy, showing reflected 
circles in the barrel, and doing the 
straightening mechanically. No 
other manufacturer uses such a 
machine. 

We must not forget the gauges. 
Have you any idea how many times 
your Remington rifle or shotgan has 
had to pass through the gauging pro- 
cess? Not a single part of the 
mechanism could go to the assembling 



room until it had been separately 
measured and proved perfect. 

There are two hundred and forty- 
five inspection points, and five hun- 
dred and seventeen gauges must be 
used: forty-nine on the guard; forty- 
six on the receiver; thirty on the 
breech-block, and so on. On the 
receiver for the No. lo repeating 
shotgun, however, seventy gauges 
are used, and thirty-one for the trig- 
ger alone. 
Beyond the Power of Sight 

Some of these gauges are mar- 
vels of delicacy, but there is one 
machine used which perhaps 
has never been equaled. Not 
only will it make measurements 
to one twenty-thousandth of an 
inch but it is actually sensitive 
to differences of a one hundred- 
thousandth of an inch. Such 
a minute dimension we can 
not even imagine; it is be- 
yond the range of the most 
powerful microscope, and 
yet here is a piece of 
mechanism which can 
really detect it. 

Compare this with the 
machine which can test ma- 
terial up to 300,000 pounds 
to the square inch, already 
spoken of. Do you wonder 
that an arm coming from a place 




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PAST AND PRESENT MODELS 
RIFLES 

1. Harper's Ft-rry iiuizzle-loadinn uiiisket. 

2. Transformed SprinKfield brceth-loader. 

3. Geiger patent nO caliber carbine. 

4. Beales pat. 44 caliber sporting rifle. 

5. Thomas pat. rifle cane. 22 and '^2 cal. 
H. Remington pat. military rifle 




where they use such devices should 
be a "game-getter" ? 
From Past to Present 

One room links us with the past, 
for in it are to be found a collection 
of the guns manufactured at Ilion 
during the past fifty years. 
We look in vain, unfortu- 
nately, for examples of 
the original rifles as made 
in the little forge by the 
brookside; even the 
Jencks carbine, which be- 
gan the series of Govern- 
ment contracts, is not 
shown. 

Here, however, is the 
"Harper's Ferry" model, 
— an antiquated muzzle- 
loading musket — while 
the next in order shows 
the great step to the 
breech-loader. In the 
third, the nipple-lock has 
been replaced by one of 
more modern make; a 
little farther beyond is 
seen the entry of the fam- 
ous dropping breech-block 
backed up by the hammer. 
It was this improvement 
that started the flood of 
foreign orders narrated in 

"The Romance of 
Remington Arms." 




1. Rider pat. 22& 44 cl 

2. Eliott pat. 41 cal. 
double derringer 





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3. Rider pat. 22 cal. 

4. Rem. pat. 44 cal. 

5. Smoot pat. 41 cal. 
t>. Eliott pat. .32 cal. 
7. Beales pat. 32 cal. 
><. Rider pat. .50 cal. 




Remington iiat. military carbine. 
Keene pat. sporting mod. repeater. 
Knife bayonet for military rifle. 
Remington pat. small-bore spc 




a. Beales pat. 38 cal. M 

10. Rider pat. 32 cal. ^ 
magazine repeater m 

11. Sniootpat.32cal. ^ 

12. Eliott pat. 41 cal. ^ 
•^in>;le derringer 



Passing over several types, the next 
to claim special attention shows the 
transition from single-fire to repeater. 
This is the Remington-Lee bolt-mech- 
anism rifle, developed after years of 
experimenting in this fac- 
202222321 tory. It constitutes the 
parent of modern military 
rifles, and is the arm that 
was first used in battle by 
the Chinese, as already 
described, proving so 
superior to the Kropat- 
chek rifles of the French. 
The series of rifles cul- 
minates, of course, in the 
familiar pump — or trom- 
bone — action, and the 
automatic repeater; in this 
latter the recoil is utilized 
to perform all the opera- 
tions of setting, firing, 
ejecting empty shells, and 
replacing them with 
fresh loads. 
Shotguns, Pistols, and 
Revolvers 

Nor must we overlook 
the similar progress, as 
here set forth, in shotguns, 
from the dropping breech- 
'""' block type to the trom- 
bone action and automatic repeaters. 
Shotguns form an increasingly large pro- 
portion of the total output, because of 
the greater num-ber of sportsmen hunting 
birds and other small game. The require- 
ments of these hunters are closely 
studied. The many styles of pis- 
tols and revolvers displayed 
are relics of the past. 
Their manufacture. 




13. Snioot pat. 38 cal. 

14. Eliott pat. 22 cal. 

15. Rider pat. 32 cal. 

16. Rem. pat. 22 cal. 

17. Beales pat. 44 cal. 



MODELS— Continued 

Remington pat. juvenile. No. 4 model. 
Remington pat. juvenile. No. model. 
Remington pat. target. No. 7 model. 
Browning pat. sporting, auto-loader. 
I'l-dersen pat. trombone repeater. 




SHOTGUNS 




'III iiiiliilliii ■ 



Rider pat. 20 ga.. single shot, No. 1 model. 
Whit more pat. 12 ga., 2-bar'l, lift lever. 
Remington pat. 12 ga.. 2-bar'l, mod. LSHO. 
Rem. pat. 12 ga.. 1-bar'l. semi-hammerless. 
Rem. pat. 12 ga.. 2-l)ar'l, hanimerless. 
Browning pat. 12 ga. auto-loader. 



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with the exception of the double 
derringer, has now been discontinued 
by the Company in order to concen- 
trate attention upon the production 
of rifles and shotguns. 
Rifling and Other Matters 

There is much more to notice as we 
go from building to building in the 
big enclosure. In some places we 
come out upon elevated passage- 
ways, running over the roofs of 
buildings; we examine with interest 
the rifling department, one of the 
most critical points in the shop 
where the shallow spiral grooves are 
cut into the barrel in order to give 
the bullet the rotation which will 
keep it true in flight. These grooves 
of course must be of exactly the right 
depth and spiral that the best results 
shall always follow. 

We shall see, without stopping to 
describe, the big oil-pumping engines 
that supply oil for the lathes and 
drills; also the brazing furnaces, to- 
gether with many other things; and 
we shall come at length to the gun- 
testing rooms. 

"\\ hat! "you exclaim, "more tests.'' 
Is there to be no end to it.'"' Ap- 
parently not, for these are Remington 
guns with ninety-five years of repu- 
tation to sustain. 
Testing with Loads 

First, then, is the barrel as perfect as 
we believe it.'* We know that it is per- 
fect in gauge and workmanship, but is 
there the slightest chance of an invis- 
ible flaw in material.'' The original 
tests of material made this very, very 
unlikely, but we will take no chances, 
j If there be such a flaw, it must burst 
at more than double the service charge. 



Accordingly the gun is laid in a 
rest with its muzzle pointed through 
an opening in the wall into a bank of 
sand. We get behind a steel plate 
for safety, and put cotton in our ears; 
the trigger is pulled by means of a 
string, — bang! the gun is uninjured; 
its strength has been assured. 

Then follow tests for action and 
speed, and if the gun be an auto- 
loader the swift rattle of its dis- 
charges is surprising. The well- 
gauged parts move as smoothly as the 
works of a watch. And finally there 
are the target tests. 
Firing at Targets 

Rifle after rifle in succession is laid 
in a rest and fired at a mathematically 
divided target upon the hillside. 

The results are noted through a 
telescope. Difficulty at this point in- 
varibly rejects the rifle. 

Shotguns are discharged at paper 
targets in the shooting gallery. We 
walk through the hallway that runs 
outside to the point where a boy is 
handling the targets. We hear a 
distant bang. The boy pulls a han- 
dle in the side of the wall, and a 
frame emerges bearing a well-peppered 
sheet of paper. This he unfastens 
and hangs up for reference, pinning a 
fresh sheet in its place. These targets 
must all be examined and every shot- 
hole be counted. If in any case there 
be found less than 75% of the shot 
within a circle of thirty inches from 
the center, the gun is at once rejected. 

Every Remington gun must pass 
triumphantly through each of its 
tests. You will find the inspector's 
mark at the base of your rifle or shot- 
gun barrel; it is never placed there 




MASTER OF THE SITUATION 



The Modern Sportsmnn with his Remington-UMC 
Automatic Rifle is Prepared for all Emergencies 



^^^^^■. 




until the completion of this entire 

process. 

Utilizing "Kicks" 

The auto-loading gun, the especial 
pride of the Remington Works, with 
its solid breech, its side ejectment, 
its perfect balance, and its self-acting 
mechanism, makes use of the recoil, — 
"the Kick" — and turns it into ser- 
vice. Something very much like this, 
in another sense, takes place in the 
factory office, and perhaps it is after 
all the most interesting feature of 
the institution. All the rest deals 
with the present, but this has its 
bearing on the future. 

Once a week, on Tuesday, the 
department heads gather for the 
purpose of discussing all letters, sug- 
gestions, or complaints. Complaints.'' 
Is it possible that such incredible 
pains as we have witnessed can ever 
fail to satisfy.? Yes, occasionally, 
for the human being is a curious 
creature, and no one has ever satisfied 
him everywhere. 

But the Company invites com- 
plaints, is grateful for them. Each 
point is weighed and discussed with 






as much care as the inspection 
of a barrel. Alany minds have 





many points of view. It is possible 
that some kick may contain a hint of 
great value, of which no one has 
yet thought. The kick must be 
made of service. 
Your Letter 

Therefore, if at any time you feel 
moved to write to the makers of 
your gun, you may do so with the 
certainty that the letter will be read 
and discussed around the table in the 
long room, that has the 
big bison-head at one end, 
surrounded by a collection 
of curious and historic guns. 
There men, who have made 
guns for more years, perhaps, 
than you have lived, will con- 
sider every point you raise, 
and if it should happen, as 
might chance, that the point 
you make be new, they will 
hold you in grateful remem- 
brance. 








The New Chapter 



The Greater Future 

HIS is the Chapter of the years to come. Thousands of 
dealers, and millions of customers will help us write it in 
every land. You have already traced with us the biographies 
of two great institutions. Each started with small begin- 
nings, and rose steadily to a stage many times greater than 
^^' was dreamed in its early days. In so doing the Remington 
Arms Company acquired acknowledged leadership in the 
manufacture of rifles and shotguns, while the Union Metallic Cartridge 
Company became easily the world's foremost producer of ammunition. 
Then one day in the recent past two famous trade-marks slipped 
quietly into one, thus: 



T 



Rgrndngtori + 



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A new chapter — this Chapter — in the world's in- 
dustrial history had begun. 
A Symbol and What It Means 

Trade-Marks and symbols may mean much 

or little. "Old Glory" beheld the first 

time is merely a pretty flag, but an 

American who sees it flying in 

some foreign land, bares 

his head. 




AUG 21 1912 



and thinks with emotion of the great 
Republic it represents. "Remington" 
and"U IM C" call to mind the years 
of time, the lives of men, and the 
millions of capital, that have been 
devoted to the upbuilding. Each has 
gained a meaning, full of interest to 
those who know, but taken together 
they represent a force, so much greater 
than the sum of both, that it may 
be years before the world realizes its 
full significance. 

The new trade-mark, therefore, 
stands for the tremendous weight of 
past achievements, but its principal 
bearing is on the future. 

It means that the greatest experts 
known to both industries have been 
brought into close co-operation under 
a single head. This is important in 
view of the fact that guns are made 
for ammunition, and ammunition for 
guns. Each is useless without the 
other. An improvement in either, 
that is not accompanied by a corre- 
sponding improvement in the other, 
loses much of its value. 
Creative Brains 

But two corps of experts working 
together from both sides of a single 
problem, are like the two blades of a 
pair of shears cutting swiftly and 
truly because of their union. There 
can be no uncertainty under such 
conditions. Every new theory in gun- 
making must be developed through 
the co-operation of those who will 
produce the ammunition for its use. 
Every idea, arising in the busy brains 

of the cartridge and shell makers, is 

instantly influenced by the 

keen practical judgment 



of the Ilion authorities. Thus it does 
not have to stand the test of outside 
use in order to prove success or failure. 
From the start it necessarily is right. 
Matchless Facilities 

Brains, however good, must be 
backed by resources. The Remington 
Arms-Union Metallic Cartridge Co. 
has the advantage of unequaled facil- 
ities. From laboratory apparatus to 
mechanical equipment, commercial 
organization, and financial capacity, 
its development is not hampered at 
a single point. Alany of its devices 
are exclusive, and every new resource 
of value, that can contribute ever so 
slightly to the general welfare, is 
supplied as soon as it appears. 
Impelling Spirit 

But more important than either, 
is the spirit behind both men and 
means. This country stands upon 
the threshold of greater commercial 
development than the world has ever 
seen. No past leadership will suffice 
unless newly won with each new 
year. Manufacturing, no longer 
merely an industry, is coming 
to be thought of as a science 
and an art. The full, broad 
realization of these facts is the 
largest asset of this Institution; 
its dominating thought of the 
future, and its determination to 
keep a place in advance of even the 
general forward movement, con- 
stitute the strongest insur- 
ance that every development 
of value will make its 
first appearance bearing 
the symbol 
"Remington-UMC" 




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